Natural Gas News – July 16, 2020

High inventories, wider price contango boost LNG floating storage in July

Spot LNG prices languishing at record lows and a steep contango along the forward curve into the winter months has encouraged traders to monetize the market structure by floating their ships into the forward delivery months. There has been a steady build up of floating LNG carriers at sea since early June, with over 25 LNG ships in the week started July 12, according to cFlow, S&P Global Platts trade-flow software. Through the month of June there were about 10-15 floating LNG ships across regions, but this rose to around 20 ships in early July, Platts cFlow data showed. Traders and portfolio participants were taking advantage of the market structure to conduct carry trades, by chartering ships at current low prices and hedging their exposure by selling forward JKM Derivatives. For more on this story visit hellenicshippingnews.com or click https://bit.ly/3h3dQxw

Analysis: Gulf Coast refineries, chemical facilities lead recovery in US industrial gas demand

In a bullish sign for US industrial gas demand, sample nominations to manufacturing, refinery and chemicals facilities across the Southeast and Texas are up this month following steep declines in June. Through mid-July, gas demand from sampled facilities across the heavily industrialized Southeast and Gulf Coast states is averaging over 1.34 Bcf/d this month – up about 15% from a nearly eight-year low at just 1.17 Bcf/d in late June, data compiled by S&P Global Platts Analytics shows. In Texas, sample industrial demand has witnessed a similar rebound this month. Pandemic-related
demand destruction has dogged the US industrial sector since early March, as both domestic and global demand for industrial outputs
has contracted. For more on this story visit spgglobal.com or https://bit.ly/2ZzGzEn