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Australia’s Santos commissions Moomba CCS facility
Australia’s Santos commissions Moomba CCS facility
Adelaide, 17 October (Argus) — Australian independent Santos has commissioned its 1.7mn t/yr Moomba carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the onshore Cooper basin of South Australia state, the firm said in its July-September results. The Australian carbon credit unit (ACCU)-generating project is running at full injection rates of up to 84mn ft³/d (2.38mn m³/d) of CO2 with all five wells on line, Santos said, adding that the full 1.7mn t/yr capacity would depend on Cooper basin gas production. The CCS will be Australia's second largest by nameplate capacity after Chevron's controversial 4mn t/yr Gorgon CCS on Barrow Island, which has been criticised for failing to reach its sequestration goals because of issues with the pressure management system. Santos reported July-September output 3pc down from 22.2mn bl of oil equivalent (boe) in the previous quarter to 21.6mn boe. This was primarily because of planned maintenance at amine trains at its Varanus Island plant and natural field decline in Western Australia state. Condensate production fell by 97pc from 329,100 bl to 9,000 bl for the quarter because of field decline and shutdown at the Ningaloo Vision floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) because of a subsea communications fault, expected to return to service in early to mid October-December quarter. Santos completed decommissioning of 13 wells within the Harriet joint venture and three of 11 wells in the Mutineer, Exeter, Fletcher and Finucane fields. The 7.8mn t/yr Gladstone LNG shipped 21 cargoes for the quarter, one less than a year and quarter earlier. LNG production was similar to the previous quarter because of seasonal shaping to meet domestic winter gas requirements. Growth is expected in October-December owing to new wells from Arcadia and Roma fields. Angore field in Papua New Guinea is being commissioned and will start production of about 350mn ft³/d in October-December, Santos said, in line with previous guidance. The Barossa backfill project offshore northern Australia is 82pc complete with FPSO integration continuing in Singapore and three of six wells completed. Santos' Pikka phase one project is 67pc complete, with Alaskan authorities approving a 25pc increase in the acreage in September. But the project's costs would increase by about 20pc, or around $520mn from the original $2.6bn estimate, because of inflation and accelerated pipelay activity costs, Santos said. This would take the cost of Pikka, which was sanctioned in mid-2022 to $3.12bn. Santos controls 51pc and Spanish energy firm Repsol owns 49pc of the asset. Santos expects its 2024 production to be at the upper end of its guidance of 84mn-90mn boe. By Tom Major Santos results Jul-Sep '24 Apr-Jun '24 Jul-Sep '23 y-o-y % ± q-o-q % ± Volumes ('000 t) GLNG (100pc) 1,300 1,338 1,370 -5 -3 Darwin LNG (100pc) 0 0 42 -100 -100 PNG LNG (100pc) 1,938 2,001 2,111 -8 -3 Santos' equity share of LNG sales 1,148 1,264 1,300 -12 -9 Financial LNG sales revenue ($mn) 766 762 821 -7 1 Total sales revenue ($mn) 1,269 1,313 1,436 -12 -3 LNG average realised price ($/mn Btu) 12.69 11.47 12.02 6 11 Oil price ($/bl) 83.24 89.48 89.97 -7 -7 Source: Santos Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
US September OCTG, line pipe imports may rise
US September OCTG, line pipe imports may rise
Houston, 9 October (Argus) — US imports of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) and line pipe products could increase in September. US OCTG imports could be 114,500 metric tonnes (t) in September, which would represent an increase of 15,200t compared to the prior year, according to license data from the US Department of Commerce, which is subject to change. If realized the September OCTG rise would be driven by a potential 19,800t increase from the prior year from South Korea to 60,600t and a 7,700t increase in volumes from Taiwan, up from none in the prior year. Those increases are partially offset by a possible 8,400t decrease in volumes from Canada and a 5,100t decrease from Mexico. If September OCTG import volumes do rise, it will be only the second month since May 2023 that import volumes have increased year over year. Line pipe imports may jump by 19,200t from the prior year to 101,800t. That increase could be driven by a 9,500t increase in line pipe of unspecified diameter from South Korea to 34,700t, and a 3,900t increase in Japanese volumes for line pipe less than or equal to 16in. By Rye Druzchetta US pipe and tube import licenses metric tonnes Product Sep-24 Sep-23 Difference ±% Aug-24 OCTG 114,521 99,310 15,211 15.3% 129,096 Line pipe* 101,777 82,589 19,188 23.2% 84,940 Standard 56,725 56,488 237 0.4% 63,929 Heavy Structural Shapes 57,682 43,364 14,318 33.0% 66,669 US Department of Commerce; September 2024 data is license data, which is subject to change. *Line pipe is all diameters. Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Thailand's gas production key to future LNG imports
Thailand's gas production key to future LNG imports
Singapore, 2 October (Argus) — Thailand's state-controlled upstream firm PTTEP has bet on increasing gas production at the country's largest and oldest Erawan field as the key to reduce Thailand's reliance on LNG imports. This comes as international prices of the super-chilled fuel continue to be rocked by volatility. But casting the spotlight on Erawan could result in the company neglecting to focus on the declining production at other gas fields in Thailand, as well as on similarly vulnerable pipeline gas supplies from Myanmar. Aside from Erawan, Thailand has a group of smaller gas fields, with Bongkot, Bongkot Tai, Pailin and Arthit among the ones with larger production volumes. The eight other gas fields, namely Tan Tawan, Phu Horm, Sirikit, Lanta, Nam Phong, Jasmin, Yoong Thong and the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area, produce much smaller volumes. It is noteworthy that gas production from the smaller gas fields has been on a steady decline since January 2023, and has consistently been below 1mn t every month. Production at Erawan has also been declining over most of 2022-23, but has since ramped up to hit PTTEP's target to achieve 800mn ft³/d (8.2bn m³/yr) of gas production at Erawan by April. Gas production at the Bongkot gas field has similarly showed a promising jump, from well below 400,000 t/month in March 2023 to at least 500,000 t/month since October 2023. But overall domestic gas production in Thailand has held mostly steady, in part because of efforts to ramp up production at Erawan. This has effectively offset lower production at smaller gas fields since 2023. Domestic gas production between January-July averaged around 2.14mn t/month, higher from the monthly average of 1.995mn t in 2023 and the monthly average of 2.072mn t in 2022. Myanmar's largest gas field, the offshore Yadana project, supplies around half of Myanmar's commercial capital Yangon's power needs. The field produces around 6bn m³/yr of gas, of which 70pc is exported to Thailand, where it is sold to state-controlled PTT, and 30pc goes to state-owned Myanmar Oil and Gas (Moge) for domestic use. But Moge has fallen under military control since a February 2021 military coup. This resulted in the US adding another layer of economic restrictions against Moge, which prohibits US-affiliated companies from providing financial services to the company. This could make it increasingly difficult for Thailand to purchase pipeline gas from Myanmar in the future as pipeline gas from the country may eventually reduce or even cease. But given that Myanmar pipeline supplies are marginal to begin with, a complete cessation of pipeline gas imports should be easily resolved through importing additional LNG to make up for the shortfall, traders in Thailand said. LNG imports into Thailand totalled 8.13mn t in 2022, before significantly increasing to 11.32mn t in 2023, according to customs data. Imports into the country so far over January-August stand at 8.2mn t, well on track to potentially surpass 2023 import volumes. By Rou Urn Lee and Naomi Ong Thailand's domestic gas production % Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
MET Group aims to become global energy company
MET Group aims to become global energy company
Houston, 23 September (Argus) — Switzerland-based MET Group strives to become a global integrated energy company with a footprint across Europe, Asia and the US, its chief executive Benjamin Lakatos told Argus . MET dreamed of entering the LNG market for 16-17 years but knew that it had to "grow up" first, its chief executive Benjamin Lakatos told Argus on the sidelines of the Gastech conference in Houston last week. The firm now has a sufficient size to take on fob contracts, Lakatos said — it signed its first long-term deal for US LNG on a fob basis in July. MET's revenue was nearly €25bn ($28bn) in 2023. The firm has already been buying spot LNG for 4-5 years. It has long-term regasification capacity in Germany, Spain and Croatia, and unloaded LNG in eight countries last year. MET is now setting its sights on the Asian market, where it is looking to start both gas sales and gas supply sourcing through its subsidiary in Singapore that opened last year. It is also looking for additional potential US LNG supply. "But we don't want to do it too fast," Lakatos said. Lakatos did not exclude the possibility of getting involved in the upstream sector as well. Owning upstream assets and having fixed costs "is a kind of insurance against market de-efficiencies", Lakatos said — by which he means "too big" price differentials, for example between Europe and the US. In the medium term, firms can only stay competitive in LNG if they are involved "in all three key regions — Asia, US sourcing, Europe", Lakatos said. "We need to play this optimisation between the three territories." A large part of the value in selling LNG will start to shift between continents, he said. But while this strategy is "easy to execute and understand" for the largest global companies, it is more challenging for smaller ones such as MET, Lakatos said. Lakatos said that although he would like to see a convergence of global gas prices over time, the market's structure is too segmented to allow this. Today, only a few companies are involved in the whole US LNG value chain, from extracting the gas, to liquefying it, shipping it and then regasifying the supply and selling it to Europe. "Everyone has his own home currency or price reference, everyone is asking for relatively big risk securities." MET's number one priority within Europe for the next five years is growing its sales in the retail sector, Lakatos said. The firm is starting to push higher retail sales in France. It will also restart in Germany and is targeting higher sales in Italy and Spain too. The MET head described his firm's trading style as "a little bit opportunistic", with traders taking advantage of changing price differentials. MET is also interested in the Baltics because it believes that the region is undervalued by international investors owing to the geopolitical situation, Lakatos said. "Investors do not consider the very stabilising factors such as the EU and Nato membership of these countries, or the euro currency." One of the business areas MET will be looking at in the Baltics is fertilisers. Expanding into fertilisers MET is trying to expand its value chain into the European fertilisers sector, in view of declining European gas consumption, as it strives to stay competitive. Lakatos said he is concerned that Europe will soon become heavily dependent on imports of fertiliser, just as it is on gas imports. Without support, the heavily gas-intensive European fertiliser industry will continue to struggle because of high gas prices, Lakatos said. MET is working on a new product for fertiliser companies, in which it would have the option of supplying either ammonia or natural gas, as both can be used to run the plants. The firm has spoken to potential suppliers but it will take 1-2 years to build up its expertise, Lakatos said. By Natasha Fielding Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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