SUGAR LAND, Texas, Jan. 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Natural gas's extreme price volatility in 2021 made some companies rich and others poor. Prices at Henry Hub, Louisiana, started the year at about $2.50 per million British thermal units (MMBtus), then shot up to $6.20 per MMBtu near the end of the year.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices were even more volatile, with spot prices quintupling during the year in some overseas markets.
Gas traders, marketers and some industrial consumers of gas who expected prices to rise ended the year in the green. But losses, often big ones, were the case for anyone who thought prices would remain stable and flat.
"As the global energy transition continues, we expect the same level of uncertainty over gas fundamentals to continue in 2022," said Paul Copello, president of IIR Energy (Sugar Land, Texas), a subsidiary of Industrial Info Resources. "Last year, gas prices went nuts, pushed up by strong demand in the U.S. from the Power and Chemical Processing industries, a colder winter in Europe that drove up demand and drained storage, questions over the availability of pipeline and processing infrastructure and continued pressure by investors to shift to lower-carbon fuels."
"As we have clearly entered a global energy transition, or transformation, we see granular details getting much more headlines, such as the lingering questions about the Nord 2 Gas Pipeline. And because Nord 2 impacts European markets, it impacts global markets," he continued. "LNG tankers carrying spot cargoes have switched from Asian to European markets in recent weeks to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities."
"That's why IIR Energy has developed the new NatGas Global MarketIntel (NGMI) Platform that provides market participants, mainly gas traders, with all the market intelligence they need to execute profitable trades and build a more robust book of business," Copello said. "Our new platform is easy to use and is powered by a comprehensive set of drivers affecting the supply, demand, and price of natural gas."
This new tool is a module of the IIR Global MarketIntel (GMI) Platform, joining other critical industry intelligence tools that include Refining GMI (RGMI), PetChem GMI (PCGMI) and Energy Transition GMI (ETGMI).
Copello noted that strategic forces in other parts of the energy ecosystem impact the supply, demand and price of natural gas. "Coal-fired power plants continue to be closed. Nuclear power plant margins continue to come under pressure. The dramatic growth of renewable power like wind and solar in many cases requires gas-powered backup generation. None of that has changed. We expect all those forces to continue to shape gas markets in 2022."
Each new variant of the coronavirus is injecting even more uncertainty to supply, demand and price forecasts for natural gas, the IIR Energy president noted. One reason for the gas price rollercoaster in 2021 was surging demand after the expiration of economic lockdowns, followed by the emergence of the delta and omicron variants, which have wreaked havoc on social and economic life in the U.S. and some European markets. Economic forecasters are scrambling to update their projections for economic growth.
The new IIR Energy NGMI platform includes coverage of the dynamics within these industry sectors:
- Global LNG import and export terminals
- Electric power gas burn
- Chemical processing
- Hydrogen economy
- Gas pipelines and midstream assets, including natural gas liquids (NGLs)
- Industrial demand
- Underground gas storage
The new platform also allows users to gain added granularity by viewing the factors that affect industry fundamentals, including:
- Plant outages, both planned and unplanned
- Unit closures
- New-build additions
- Plant retirements
- Pipeline flow data
- Status of compressor stations
- Energy storage
- Weather forecasts
- Disaster impact knowledge
"For decades, we have provided clients with tools and market intelligence so they can better hedge risk, build more profitable and durable portfolios, and arbitrage between fuels and markets," Copello said. "It's raining out there--let us be your umbrella."
For more information, send a note to iirteam@iirenergy.com to learn more about this new NGMI platform, schedule a demonstration and find out about other services under development to help clients more easily and profitably navigate the energy transition.
A unit of Industrial Info Resources, IIR Energy provides real-time, supply-side global market intelligence for the commodity-trading community, including physical and financial traders, investors, analysts and asset owners. Energy asset infrastructure and production intelligence is now more important than ever for predictive modeling. Having a resource you can rely on for quality market intelligence through primary research is key to profitable trading. IIR Energy is the source for traders when it comes to real-time knowledge of offline events for power generation stations, oil and gas pipelines, terminals and production facilities, as well as petrochemical and petroleum refineries.
Contact:
Brian Ford
bford@industrialauto.com
713-783-5147
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3b1166ce-05e2-4016-a13a-ed689781a7b8
