Global Gas Shortage Intensifies: Asian Premium Forces EU Energy Supply Restructuring
On March 26, the natural gas crisis may be larger and more severe in its impact than the oil crisis the market fears. QatarEnergy announced force majeure on some of its liquefied natural gas contracts on Wednesday. According to market sources, Santos of Australia suspended its Barossa gas field project, which could affect around 3.7 million tonnes of downstream capacity at the Darwin LNG plant. The liquefied natural gas facilities of QatarEnergy suffered fires due to attacks, with repairs possibly taking years, and its output accounts for more than 15% of the world's total natural gas capacity. As for Santos’s Barossa project, equipment is currently being replaced and a restart is expected to take at least several weeks.
This impact is especially significant for Asian countries, as nearly 80% of Asia's energy supply comes through the Strait of Hormuz. Since the US-Iran conflict erupted on February 28, Asian natural gas prices have soared by 143%, and European natural gas prices have also increased by 85%. Although these price levels remain below the peaks following the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict, analysts have pointed out that the current supply situation is actually much worse than in 2022. For example, China’s semiconductor manufacturing region of Taiwan reported on Tuesday that its natural gas supply could only last for 11 days. The elevated natural gas prices in Asia also caused some cargoes of liquefied natural gas destined for Europe to be rerouted. Laura Page, LNG and Gas Insight Manager at Kpler, pointed out that indeed 11 LNG cargoes were rerouted from Europe to Asia, two more from Europe to Egypt, and one from Europe to Turkey.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
You may also like
Oil tanker freight reaches a sixty-year high: shipping oil from the US to China is more expensive than launching a rocket!
The freight for a single barrel of crude oil has soared to $41, approaching half the oil price, and for a single trip, the freight was once enough to buy an oil tanker. The Middle East crisis has led to a structural shortage of shipping capacity in the Strait of Hormuz, coupled with ship-to-ship transfers extending turnaround times. VLCC freight rates have skyrocketed from an annual average of $9.2 million to $77 million—an increase of more than eight times. Refiners’ profits are being rapidly eroded, the average price of second-hand oil tankers has reached a historic high, and, unusually, surpassed the price of new vessels.
Following the Drop but Not the Rise! Silver Trapped in Difficulties
The logic of AI and solar energy demand continues to play out, yet prices are falling against the trend—macroeconomic forces such as a strengthening US dollar and rising real interest rates have completely suppressed fundamentals. Speculative funds offloaded $1.6 billion in a single week, marking a yearly peak, while CTA net short positions reversed by $2.6 billion to the highest level this year. However, Goldman Sachs analysts believe that the extreme short positioning itself is building reversal momentum, highlighting an asymmetry; once macro headwinds subside, a retaliatory rebound could be easily triggered. After a similar shakeout last time, silver surged 15% in six weeks.
The "Digital Metrics Game" Behind the Trillion-Dollar Valuation: OpenAI and Anthropic's Revenues Are Actually Incomparable
Anthropic counts "total revenue" in its cloud sales, while OpenAI only recognizes the "net revenue" based on profit-sharing. This discrepancy in accounting standards has directly triggered a decline in tech stocks. Even more striking, the highly touted "annualized revenue" is significantly inflated, with OpenAI's actual revenue expected to be only half of this figure. Anthropic's actual revenue also exhibits nearly a 50% gap compared to its reported numbers.
Crypto prices
More
