IGU Publishes Annual LNG Report

The International Gas Union published its annual report on the global LNG business April 5. Many of its salient points are common to the report published only last week by the International LNG Importers Association (GIIGNL) and reported by NGW.

The IGU however said that global LNG trade grew by only 5% to 258mn mt in 2016 – whereas the GIIGNL report said the increase was 7.5% to 263.6mn mt.  The former excludes some smaller-scale or within-country trades, whilst GIIGNL counts volumes only once imported.

Thus Qatar exported 77.2mn mt last year, according to the IGU report, whereas GIIGNL said imports received from Qatar in 2016 were 79.62mn mt.

The IGU report goes into a little more detail on asset development costs, citing a weighted average expected cost for greenfield liquefaction projects announced to come online in 2017-2022 of $1,541/metric ton of capacity – but admits that “ultimate floating liquefaction costs are not yet clear.”

It expects global liquefaction capacity will exceed 450mn mt/yr by 2020, mainly due to growth from under-construction projects in Australia and the US.

Global LNG regasification use rates averaged 34% in 2016, similar to 2015 levels, according to the IGU report, noting also that 90.4mn mt/yr of new receiving capacity was under construction in 1Q 2017. It notes how “Asian and spot LNG prices fell steadily in 1H 2016 as supply overwhelmed demand, settling at $4.05/mn Btu in May” 2016 but firmed to $9.95/mn Btu for spot by February 2017.

The IGU’s 2017 World LNG Report can be downloaded here (26.5MB).

Infographic courtesy of IGU

Mark Smedley