As Australians are still wondering by how much their utility bills will go up and house prices plus real incomes go down thanks to being starved of gas, our much adored Asian LNG import customers are now shipping excess gas to Europe.
Last week we heard that China is re-shipping huge volumes of LNG, very likely Aussie sourced, to Europe:
China’s JOVO Group, a major LNG trader, recently disclosed that it had resold an LNG cargo to a European buyer.
A futures trader in Shanghai told Nikkei that the profit made from such a transaction could be in the tens of millions of dollars or even reach $100 million.
China’s biggest oil refiner Sinopec Group also acknowledged on an earnings call in April that it has been channeling excess LNG into the international market.
Local media have said that Sinopec alone has sold 45 cargoes of LNG, or roughly 3.15 million tonnes. The total amount of Chinese LNG that has been resold is likely above 4 millions tonnes, equivalent to 7% of Europe’s gas imports in the January-June half year.
Now we get this:
The LNG tanker Attalos arrived in Europe last week carrying two partial cargoes of Australian gas and a portion of Qatari gas, Vortexa data showed. Before meeting up with the Attalos in Malaysia last month, three vessels — Patris, Seapeak Glasgow and Kinisis — all sailed to Northeast Asia to discharge part of their shipments. The Patris had called at the North West Shelf facility in Australia where BP Plc has capacity.
A BP spokesman declined to comment on specific cargoes, trades or vessels as part of company policy.
So, this is not east coast gas but that is probably happening as well and, let’s face it, it’s all Aussie gas anyway.
Meanwhile, the cartel’s Asian members are whinging:
“GLNG is concerned that the backstop of ADGSM has had the unintended consequence of allowing state governments to move slowly on securing domestic gas supplies,” it said in a submission released on Wednesday to the government’s consultation hub, on a move to lengthen the policy measure beyond its original five years by a further 10 years.
“There has only been limited movements in these jurisdictions which, while encouraging, can only be properly viewed as tentative first steps.”
…It said if GLNG’s production was curtailed through the ADGSM, the energy security of South Korea and Malaysia “will be put directly a risk”. Petronas and Kogas had invested about $14 billion in GLNG to secure energy for their respective countries, the venture said.
GLNG includes Petronas, Malaysia’s oil and gas national champion, yet here is Malaysia playing host to excess gas being shipped to Europe.
If you don’t play the game that you’re in then you’ll get played.
