Venture Global sees global LNG prices volatility ‘very short-term’, CEO says

TOKYO: Global liquefied natural gas price volatility caused by the Middle East crisis is “very short-term”, Mike Sabel, chief executive officer with Venture Global, told the Indo-Pacific Energy Security Ministerial and Business Forum in Tokyo.

Some 20% of global LNG supply is now offline with QatarEnergy LNG facilities shut amid the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, which has disrupted energy supplies from the Middle East. It could take months to return to normal deliveries, Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi said last week.

“There’s tremendous volatility in the markets,” Sabel said. “However, we view that it’s very short-term, and we’re tremendously optimistic about the middle- and long-term strength of the market, equity in the market, supply coming online. We expect long-term, very stable liquefaction prices.”

The average LNG price for April delivery into Northeast Asia was estimated at $19.50 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), down from $22.50/mmBtu in the previous week, which was the highest level since mid-January 2023.

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The price for May delivery was estimated at $18.90/mmBtu, industry sources said.

U.S. liquefied natural gas developer Venture Global, the second-largest U.S. LNG exporter, on Friday said it will proceed with phase 2 of its CP2 LNG project in Louisiana.

“We’re going to add another 10 million tons (of LNG) to the 14 million tons of phase one,” Sabel said.

“We expect actually the first and second phases will be producing initial energy next year - it’ll have a significant impact on the fuel market prices pretty quickly.”