Exports of liquefied natural gas from the Atlantic Basin to the Far East are expected to significantly decline in April from record highs in March, according to a Houston-based consulting firm.

While gas prices in Asia are still high at about $14 per mmBtu, Waterborne Energy, which monitors the global flow of liquefied gases, said in a report this week that volumes booked from the Atlantic basin to Asia seem to be slowing.
The company estimates that about 1.2 million tonnes of LNG will move from Atlantic Basin suppliers to Asia in April, down nearly a third from the all-time high of about 1.8 million tons shipped in March.
Waterborne said the bulk of the excess available supply will probably go to Europe, primarily Spain which is still willing to pay about $13 per mmBtu for gas, with a slight increase in volume to the United States.
Atlantic Basin supplies come mostly from Egypt, Trinidad, Equatorial Guinea, Norway and Algeria.
Asia has been the destination of choice for spot LNG supplies this heating season as prices in countries like Japan and South Korea at times topped $20 per mmBtu and hovered in the mid-to high-teens for most of winter, or more than double the levels seen in the United States and Britain.
Japan, which was already the world’s largest LNG buyer, has seen even stronger demand for the super-cooled gas since last summer when an earthquake shut the country’s largest nuclear plant, forcing utilities to use other fuels to generate power.
In addition, South Korea was also hit by nuclear plant problems last year and saw strong growth in spot LNG demand.
But with Asian heating demand now slowing and prices in the US and Europe creeping higher, the case can be made for diverting some cargoes from the long 60-day round trip to the Far East.
“With strengthening western gas prices and declining Asian demand, we anticipate that the Asian spot buying presence will continue to decline, allowing more Atlantic Basin cargoes to remain in the Atlantic Basin,” Waterborne said.