Even the World’s top LNG Exporter thinks natural gas prices are too high
Tsvetana Paraskova
DOHA/WASHINGTON, OCT 14: Natural
gas prices have reached unhealthy levels for both producers and consumers, Saad
al-Kaabi, Qatar’s Energy Minister and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, the world’s top
LNG exporter, said on Thursday, a day after spot liquefied natural gas prices
in Asia hit a new record high.
“While natural gas prices are an
outcome of basic market fundamentals including supply and demand, the current
price levels observed in global markets are unhealthy for both producers and
consumers,” al-Kaabi said, as carried by Bloomberg, after a virtual dialogue with
European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson today.
Last month, al-Kaabi said on the
sidelines of the Gastech industry conference in Dubai that the surging gas
prices were partly the result of underinvestment in the industry, also driven
by the attempts at fast energy transition.
“There’s a euphoria around the
energy transition that’s forcing companies not to invest,” al-Kaabi said.
“There is a huge demand from all
our customers, and unfortunately we cannot cater for everybody. Unfortunately,
in my view, this is due to the market not investing enough in the industry,”
al-Kaabi said at the event in September, as carried by Reuters.
Back then, when spot LNG prices
in Asia were “only” $20 per million British thermal units (mmBtu)—a record for
September ahead of the winter heating season—the Qatari energy minister said he
hoped the high prices wouldn’t last because they would not be good for
consumers.
“We don’t want these high prices,
we don’t think it is good for the consumers. We don’t want $2 and we don’t want
$20, we want to have a reasonable price that is sustainable,” al-Kaabi told Reuters
at the end of September.
This week, the worsening global energy crisis sent Asia’s spot LNG prices soaring by 40 percent on Wednesday, as a cargo for delivery into North Asia in November was priced at as much as $56/mmBtu—a record high that beat the previous record from last week of $34.52/mmBtu.
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COURTESY oilprice
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