• 06 Feb 2018

Four trading houses traded an impressive 9 percent of total liquefied natural gas (LNG) sold worldwide in 2017, according to a report by the research and consultancy group Wood Mackenzie.

Trafigura, Vitol, Gunvor and Glencore are “dominating” the LNG trading landscape and these four firms traded about 27 million tonnes of LNG last year, the consultancy said.

Wood Mackenzie estimates that Trafigura traded around 8.1 million tonnes of LNG last year followed by Vitol with 7.5 million mt. Gunvor and Glencore traded around 6 million mt, each.

Several other commodity trading houses such as Noble Group and DufEnergy have branched out into LNG from their core oil trading businesses, but their footprints are still “small”, it said.

According to Wood Mackenzie, past strategy has been to structure their positions on a cargo-by-cargo approach building upon emerging LNG markets in Egypt, Pakistan and Argentina. Now they want more.

Mid- to-long-term supply and market positions provide a platform for future growth – perfectly illustrated by the recent sale and purchase (SPA) agreement between Cheniere Marketing and Trafigura, the consultancy said.

To remind - on January 16, 2018 (Editor note) - Trafigura has agreed to purchase approximately 1 million tonnes per annum of LNG from Cheniere on a free on board (FOB) basis (indexed to the monthly Henry Hub price, plus a fee) for a term of 15 years beginning in 2019.

“Investment in LNG infrastructure allows for easier access to markets and trading optionality and creates bespoke solutions crafted to meet buyer needs,” Wood Mackenzie said.

According to ConferenzaGNL, the entry of the trading houses in the "big LNG" sector is making the market more flexible and liquid. This favors the development of "LNG small scale" activities. One example is Gunvor, which has been supplying LNG from Spain to Sardinia with ferries for years. For ConferenzaGNL soon there will also be evidence of statistics of these new commitments. Today these volumes are still small but growing rapidly, especially in the land transport sector and industrial uses.