石油设备网讯 据世界石油网站4月5日东京报道，荷兰皇家壳牌同意以包括煤炭在内的价格向一家日本公用事业公司出售液化天然气，这是液化天然气市场蓬勃发展中的最新创新，在该市场，买家寻求分散风险。
壳牌和其客户东京天然气（Tokyo Gas）周五表示，这是全球首份此类合同，10年期协议包括一个基于煤炭指数化的定价公式。东京天然气公司（Toshio Gas）总经理川村东夫（Toshio Kawamura）周五在一次简报会上表示，通过使液化天然气价格敞口多样化，这一历史上与石油有关的价格敞口将稳定下来。
伯克利研究集团（Berkeley Research Group）能源业务负责人克里斯托弗•冈卡尔维斯（Christopher Goncalves）表示，这类交易将使公用事业公司能够根据煤炭市场的变化调整液化天然气的定价，从而更好地在自己的电力市场中竞争。
这是“对那些在国内市场与燃煤发电竞争的人来说的一个风险管理策略，”Goncalves说，“在印度和日本等燃煤发电量大的地区，这一点很有吸引力。”
在几个市场上，煤炭和天然气作为发电燃料面临着挑战。据美国能源信息管理局（Energy Information Administration）称，在美国，廉价和丰富的天然气已将煤炭的份额从2008年的50%以上降至去年的25%以下。在欧洲，公用事业公司必须增加碳排放的成本，这对煤炭用户来说更重，因为它排放的二氧化碳几乎是二氧化碳的两倍。
这种竞争在亚洲并不普遍，因为在亚洲，煤炭通常是最便宜的化石燃料，而且该地区的大多数公用事业公司缺乏快速转换为天然气的能力。像日本、韩国这样的买家通常会为液化天然气支付额外费用，并用远洋油轮运输。据彭博社（Bloomberg）计算，2014年初，现货液化天然气价格比煤炭高出近80美元/桶，但上个月已降至12美元的折扣。
随着需求和现货交易的繁荣，液化天然气市场的定价选择也日益多样化。这是壳牌本周第二次涉足非正统天然气定价。该公司早些时候宣布与NextDecade公司达成协议，购买美国液化天然气，通常与美国天然气基准亨利枢纽（Henry Hub）在布伦特石油（Brent Oil）的基础上挂钩。
张晴 编译自 世界石油
Shell sets precedent with deal linking gas prices to coal
Royal Dutch Shell agreed to sell liquefied natural gas to a Japanese utility at prices that include a link to coal, the latest innovation in the booming LNG market where buyers are seeking to diversify risks.
In what Shell and its customer, Tokyo Gas, said Friday is the world’s first such contract, the 10-year deal includes a pricing formula that is based on coal indexation. By diversifying its price exposure for LNG, which has historically been linked to oil, costs of the fuel will be stabilized, Toshio Kawamura, a general manager with Tokyo Gas, said in a briefing Friday.
This type of deal would allow a utility to align the pricing of its LNG with changes in the coal market, and therefore better compete in its own power market, said Christopher Goncalves, chair of the energy practice at Berkeley Research Group.
This is “a risk management strategy for somebody who is competing with coal-fired generation in the home market,” Goncalves said. “That is attractive in places which have a lot of coal-fired generation, such as India and Japan.”
Coal and natural gas face off as power generation fuel in several markets. In the U.S., cheap and abundant gas has decimated coal’s share from more than 50% as recently as 2008 to less than 25% last year, according to the Energy Information Administration. In Europe, utilities must add the cost of carbon emissions, which weighs more on coal users because it emits nearly twice as much carbon dioxide.
