In analysing early-2021’s gas market, one can uncover some notable trends, which have caused Europe to reduce LNG sendout more than twofold YoY.
January has likely set a record with the highest number of cancellations of cargoes initially planned for delivery to the European terminals. Dunkirk in France and Krk in Croatia received only one shipment each, while the preliminary monthly schedules had consisted of eight and three deliveries, respectively.
Just as important, players were actively resorting to eastward re-exports in the first month of 2021. Rotterdam was especially in demand for that purpose, and the LNG terminal of that port has become the real gateway to Asia, on top of usual imports for NWE buyers.
The volume of LNG that Netherlands re-exported this month has come up just 15kt short of aggregate supplies to the Gate terminal. In January, there were three cargoes shipped to Asia from the Dutch installation, the highest quantity since it started commercial operations in 2011.
As the Asian premium for LNG is narrowing, sellers’ interest in re-exports is expected to be lower in February. But the question remains as to whether it can result in a sharp rise in supplies to Europe.
Source: Yakov Grabar
See original post by Yakov at LinkedIn.
