NWE Greets Autumn with Ample Supply

The oil giant BG Group (Reading, U.K.) has quietly begun looking for a buyer for part of its prized Tanzanian operation. The FTSE 100 exploration company’s investment in East Africa has been among its biggest successes. It bought majority stakes in three offshore drilling areas in 2010. They quickly produced a string of giant discoveries that have the potential to turn Tanzania and neighboring Mozambique, where more big reserves were found, into the world’s largest gas exporting region after Russia and Qatar.

With Brent crude oil prices having dropped below $100 (U.S.) in the past few weeks, LPG prices have also generally weakened over the same period.

In Northwest Europe, the large propane and butane markets have been slightly more active than last month with no shortage of supply. Propane prices for large, fully refrigerated cargoes are at $706 cif Northwest Europe, slightly lower than prices in August. Refrigerated butane prices now stand at $721 cif Amsterdam/Rotterdam/Antwerp (ARA), $50 softer per tonne than last month.
The smaller pressure propane sector of the market has been very quiet, with inland demand showing signs of improving. The butane market appears to be well balanced, with the limited availability being swallowed-up by petrochemical producers.

The latest indication of propane swap deals are October $718-$722 per tonne cif Northwest Europe, and November $728-$732 per tonne. North Sea prices for September are at $660.50 per tonne fob North Sea terminals for propane and at $692 per tonne for butane.

In the Mediterranean, the markets are still very quiet. Prices for large, fully refrigerated cargoes of propane are at $726 per tonne cif Lavera, South of France, and butane is at $772 per tonne cif Lavera.

Sonatrach, the Algerian national oil company, negotiated new LPG contract prices for September at $655 per tonne fob Bethouia and Skikda for propane and at $730 per tonne fob Bethouia. Both prices are off from a month earlier.

Saudi Aramco posted new LPG contract prices for September at $745 per tonne fob Middle Eastern (M.E.) terminals for propane and at $785 per tonne fob M.E. terminals for butane. Spot discounts against contract prices currently stand at minus $11 per tonne to minus $9 per tonne for both grades of LPG.
Trading activity in the Far East was more brisk than that in the Middle East, with several tenders being issued and concluded. Although the VLGC market has become slightly more active, surprisingly, freight rates weakened marginally.