Hello Darkness, My Old Friend - Is the Global LNG Market Headed for Oversupply and Lower Prices?

RBN Energy Blogcast

Listen to Paul Simon’s “The Sound of Silence” and you hear the words of a teenager coming to terms with the disconnect between the world his parents promised and the real world yet to come. In the LNG market, there’s a similar generational divide. A business built on long-term contracts, rigid trade patterns, and the promise of substantial growth potential is being met with a more skeptical outlook, one in which a large amount of incremental LNG supply has been locked up but serious questions remain about LNG demand. As we discuss in today’s RBN blog, an entire generation of LNG supply is being built on the presumption of selling it for $10/MMBtu or more, but a shortfall in demand growth could leave it selling for considerably less. And if that happens … sunk-cost economics, here we come.