The Great Rotation: With the invastion of Ukraine, VVP decided to use gas as a weapon & cut pipeline flows into Europe.
In return, Europe maxed out LNG terminal capacities & contracted every available free LNG cargo globally to compensate the collapse of Russian flows.
2/n
Europe was able to attract LNG by being the best business globally.
How? By offering the highest prices. A cargo owner such as Trafigura or Total which bought LNG at Cheniere in US for $4.1/MMBtu + $3 gasification fee in Jan 2022 booked a pre-shipping profit of $21/MMBtu.
3/n
It however gets more complicated.
First, as with for all commodities, natural gas prices have the function to match demand and supply daily to accomodate the commodity's specific logistics as natgas can only be consumed or stored.
That means that Europe's LNG import terminal buyers are free to discount a cargo owner's price to TTF, Europe's gas hub price.
They must: storages in the UK, ESP, FRA or ITA (major regasification hubs) are now 100%, 93%, 99% & 95%-filled, respectively.
5/n ESP %-filled
Here is one (of many) mismatches of European gas infrastructure from the "big rotation".
Neither the UK or ESP have enough storage to accomodate their regas terminal capacities.
In addition, ESP is pipeline export constraint into France (MidCat pipeline project pending).
6/n
Consequently, TTF/NBP are down hard (& in s-term cantongo) & LNG trades at a discount to TTF.
Means? A Nov cargo into Spain was heard trading at TTF minus $30/MMBtu. Call it a "regas terminal slot discount".
For now, the stop-loss is Far East minus shipping cost.
7/n
However, cargo owners (and TTF) know winter is around the corner. At that point Europe's consumption is 2-4x higher than now.
Hence, they prefer to float their tankers and sell into higher Dec TTF prices which are currently at $42/MMBtu (3rd bullett from left).
8/n
Consequently, LNG floating storage is going vertical (below; Mt).
9/n
This in turn removes LNG shipping capacities globally and, among others, sent LNG shipping spot rates to $375,000 per day - an all time record.
10/n
TTF $10/MMBtu lower for Oct/Nov, LNG cargo discounts of $15/MMBtu & higher shipping rates (true for East of Suez rates too) will reduce LNG flows into Europe to match storage availability.
Message: Politicians don't need a price cap. Floating prices do the work instead.
11/n
What EU politicians however need to do if they are serious about reducing prices is to create a 50-70mt LNG export capex boom.
That in turn needs l-t contracts as terminal capacity expansion needs $bn for which Qatar et al must sell cargo for 20 years to earn it back.
12/n
Sadly, l-t contracts are in conflict with European climate laws which require the industry to be net-zero by 2050.
Why would EU utilities, majors or trading houses sign l-t LNG contracts with Qatar on that basis?
In this episode, we discuss China's 2nd of 5 economic paths it can follow.
This episode will also focus on Xi the leader. To understand Xi means to better understand China's economic path forward.
1/n #China
Can China replace malinvestment with more consumption?
Answer: Maybe a little bit & over a long time frame, but President Xi does not want to focus on this path. Instead, he wants to implement his socialist utopia.
2/n
Yes, China’s rising entrepreneurs were welcomed by the Communist Party for at least two decades. But all of that is in reverse.
Under Xi Jinping, China has moved full circle: from low growth & low freedom in the pre-reform era back towards something similar today.
In this episode, we discuss China's investment-led growth model & the first of 5 economic paths China can follow.
As you would expect, also this episode is full of Chinese characteristics!
1/n #China
Starting in 1990s, China’s economic engine has been fueled by capital investments.
Its central planning bureau defined GDP targets, picked winners and drove growth from debt-driven capital formations (green line).
2/n
Has any other nation tried this before, ever? Not to our knowledge.
We checked at ALL G20 economies and their respective growth models for past 70 years. 45% capital formation share is a unique experiment in economic history.
Over the past 3 years, we made some controversial calls in commodities. We decided to exit our oil holding in Aug 2022, we went short natgas in early 2023 or called for copper to go lower in May.
Why? Because we have an egde on China.
1/n #China
Yes, mainstream media picked up pace on important issues facing China today.
Most came to understand that the property bubble burst, that the economy is slowing, that geopolitical frictions are emerging, that there is too much debt.
But do they understand the underlying forces that drive these issues?
2/n
While the majority of these facts are known, most Western observers, investors & industrialists do not fully appreciate their interdependence & the structural changes that are unfolding in China today.
Pre-2020, Gold had one marginal buyer, that being gold-backed ETFs.
Today, gold has at least 3 marginal buyers that can overlap or alternate each other. They are:
- Gold backed Western ETFs (which buy, sell or hold based on US real rates);
- Central Banks seeking higher gold reserves (China; India; Thailand; Vietnam; Qatar, KSA or even Poland) for geopolitical & other reasons;
- Chinese & other Asian wholesale or retail market participants and professional speculators;
Who bought most last? India!
Why? The government cut import duties on gold by 9% at end of July, triggering a renewed surge in demand. “The impact of the duty cut was unprecedented, it was incredible,” said Philip Newman, managing director of Metals Focus in London. “It really brought consumers in.”
At least for now, there seems to be always somebody.
1/n
Note however that Chinese retail buying has slowed down recently, as best illustrated by the Shanghai gold premium over international prices.
I will elaborate on the Chinese retail clients more soon.
2/n
However, professional Chinese speculators have increased their futures positions somewhat again. Who is the better indicator of what comes next, retail or the pros? IDK
In 2023, I said I will tweet less about oil and I will stick to this promise but today I make an exception and will break the promise as we enter a period of more volatility for oil...
So let's talk about OPEC and Saudi market share. It's decision making time.
The Saudis decided to keep oil from falling <$75 for 2y by cutting overproportionally in their OPEC+ quota context.
They have cap for 12mbpd but produce 9mbpd. It was 10.5mbpd in 2022. Pick a number but they are 15-20% below their fair share.
2/n
Why did they do so?
Likely because of bad advisers. There is a whole crew of supply gloomers out there charging clients money to claim the Permian or US shale is about to roll over.
Let me share some real time data on the EU natgas market that are hard to get.
European gas consumption for 28 countries matches last's years to the cubic meter (Oct 2022 - Oct 2023 = Year 2022).
However, consumption remains 17% below 2019/20 season.
Is there a supply issue? Rubbish. The global LNG market is oversupplied from every corner; EU storages will be filled by end of Aug where we sit. We have too much gas.
#TTF 1/4 (in mcm/day and YTD)
Three factors matter why there is less consumption vs 2019/20 season:
1) Milder weather: 70% of total consumption is temperature related. Temperatures are milder, thus Europe consumes 14% less vs 2019/20.
Is that permenant? It sure looks like a trend where I sit. But climate scientists can answer that best.
Households Consumption; 2/4
2) Less power generation: Europe replaces more and more natgas in the grid with solar & wind and in the case of France with better capacity utilisation of its nuclear fleet. That adds up...!