Natural Gas News – April 22, 2020

Russia Races To Squeeze The U.S. Out Of Asian Natural Gas Markets

Oil Price reports: The increasingly close relationship on multiple levels between Russia and China became obvious to anyone with an interest in such matters last July when the two countries staged their first joint air patrol in the Asia-Pacific region, sending the air and naval defenses of the principal U.S. satellite countries in the area – Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines – into panic mode. At the same time, the two countries continue to push ahead with their game-changing US$400 billion ‘Power of Siberia’ gas project that will move at least 38 billion cubic metres of gas annually for 30 years from the Chayandinskoye and Kovyktinskoye fields in Eastern Siberia to Northeastern China. Last week saw major announcements from Russia that now that China is apparently past the peak of its coronavirus outbreak, plans for the project are moving quickly ahead and are being expanded
in scope and scale. For more on this story visit oilprice.com or click https://bit.ly/2Vw1tCm

Coronavirus: Oil plunges for a second day on gloomy outlook

BBC News reports: It comes after the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI), the benchmark for US oil, fell below zero for the first time ever earlier this week. The falls are a striking illustration of just how much economic activity has slowed around the world. Prices have weakened sharply because of a combination of events triggered by a collapse in global demand. The knock-on effect has been a supply glut and a worldwide shortage of storage space for oil. On Tuesday energy ministers from the Opec and other major oil-producing countries held an unscheduled conference call to discuss the collapse but did not agree any new measures to cut supplies. “This is an unprecedented demand drop. Nobody in their lifetime has seen anything like this,” said James McNally of Third Bridge Group. The collapse in physical demand for crude products like petrol and jet fuel has left storage hubs at capacity or, as one trader put it: “They’re close to the brim.” For more on this story visit bbc.com or click https://bbc.in/3cDtcXf