March 15, 2010, 1:09 AM EDT
By Dinakar Sethuraman
March 15 (Bloomberg) -- Liquefied natural gas shipments may grow at a faster pace this year because of the global economic recovery and plants increase output, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said.
“The last two months of 2009 global LNG exports were the highest on record,” Joseph Allman and Xin Liu, analysts for the U.S. bank, said in a report to clients on March 12. “Large new LNG liquefaction plants are ramping-up and several more are scheduled to start up through 2010 and into 2011.”
Japan, South Korea and Spain, the three biggest LNG importers in the world, reduced LNG imports by a combined 1.5 billion cubic feet a day in 2009 from a year earlier, JPMorgan said. That’s equivalent to about 11.5 million metric tons, or about five months of South Korea’s LNG purchases, based on official data.
Some of the declines in major LNG markets were compensated by record purchases last year of the cleaner-burning fuel by Europe and China, according to the report. U.K., Belgium and China increased imports by a combined 1.3 billion cubic feet a day while Japan reached its highest ever monthly average in December 2009 at about 11 billion.
LNG exports from 17 nations including the world’s biggest exporters led by Qatar, Malaysia and Indonesia rose to 25.2 billion cubic feet a day in 2009 from 24.2 billion cubic feet a day a year earlier as new plants started in Qatar, Indonesia and Yemen, according to the report.
Technical problems with some of the new plants and lower exports from Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt kept a lid on 2009 LNG exports, JPMorgan said.
LNG imports by the U.S. may almost double in 2010 to 2.2 billion cubic feet a day from an average 1.2 billion in 2009, JPMorgan said. That compares with a five-year average of 1.5 billion and 2008’s average of 1 billion.
“Based on rig activity and forecasts for exploration and production growth, the natural gas market appears to be well oversupplied again in 2010,” Allman said. In 2009, the U.S. natural gas market was oversupplied by about 3 billion cubic feet a day, a little less than LNG imports in 2009 by South Korea, the world’s second biggest LNG buyer.
LNG is gas chilled to liquid form for transportation by ship to destinations not linked by pipeline.
Source: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-15/global-lng-shipments-to-accelerate-this-year-jpmorgan-says.html
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