Stronger LNG prices

Qatargas chairman and CEO Faisal al-Suwaidi has forecasted stronger price levels as well as demand in the Atlantic Basin.

“Qatar sees much of the new growth potential in the Atlantic Basin and has executed strategies to develop secure markets there,” al-Suwaidi said. “Achieving these objectives required investing billions in terminals and ships to access the deep liquid markets of the northwest Europe and the US. This investment ensures sufficient market capacity for the new large trains.

“By 2010 over 120mn tonnes of LNG could be targeting the Atlantic Basin and there should be over 200mn tonnes of terminal capacity waiting for it. So what we see is solid growth in LNG demand in all markets and sufficient production, ships and terminals to deliver it where it is needed the most.”

While declining to discuss specific price ranges, al-Suwaidi added that “We see that gas is deeply discounted in the Atlantic Basin relative to oil on an equivalent energy basis, and hope to see prices strengthen relative to oil in the coming years.”

Sitting on 900tn cu ft of gas reserves, the third largest reserves in the world, Qatar has invested billions in its infrastructure to ensure that it can meet its ambitious goals for exporting LNG to Asia, Europe and North America.

Al-Suwaidi is positive about LNG growth for the future. “Eight new LNG trains around the world will come into production increasing capacity by some 20%,” he said. “This new capacity is meeting customers in Asia and the Atlantic Basin ready for the gas. This expansion will continue, albeit at a slightly slower pace, and likely to average over 10% per annum growth through the end of the decade.”