Oil price drop may hit shale gas

The more than 40% drop in world oil prices between June and December is putting enormous pressure on US shale producers.

While high storage volumes will help balance market demand in Asia and Europe over the winter, stock levels in North America are not as strong.

• Americas

  LNG demand from Brazil, Mexico and Chile will keep the regional market tight in coming months

• Asia Pacific

  Relatively weak demand growth will leave the market loose this winter

• Europe & Russia

  Stocks remain high – which will help meet market needs in Q1 2015

• Middle East & Africa

  Low oil prices make LNG imports attractive for Kuwait and

• OPAL – the politics of pipelines

  Gazprom’s access to the OPAL pipeline remains limited to 50%, although a decision to release the blocked capacity could be reached in January. It could facilitate increased flows to Europe, but will it happen?

• Floating LNG proves attractive for the US

  While the first LNG export projects in the US will be land based, FLNG solutions may become more popular because of their additional flexibility.

• China’s gas imports – major expansion ahead

  China’s gas demand growth has weakened this year, but even with subdued market expansion the need for imports is still expected to grow rapidly between now and 2020.