石油设备网讯 据路透社布里斯班报道，周二，康菲石油公司首席执行官表示，虽然市场供应过剩，但随着需求的不断增长，预计目前疲软的全球液化天然气价格将有所改善。
康菲石油首席执行官Ryan Lance在澳大利亚的一次行业会议上表示：“液化天然气的价格目前相当疲软，但我们认为这是一个短期现象。我们刚度过温和的北半球冬天，我们相信，需求增长将吸收当前市场上存在的供应过剩。”
康菲石油在澳大利亚北部经营着每年370万吨Darwin LNG工厂和每年900万吨的东海岸澳大利亚太平洋LNG工厂。
该公司预计将在今年晚些时候与合作伙伴就是否开发Barossa气田做出最终投资决定，以便在2022年左右从其现有资源Bayu Undan油田（位于帝汶海）供应耗尽时，保持Darwin LNG工厂的产能。
Barossa位于Darwin以北约300公里（186英里），由康菲石油公司、韩国SK E&S公司和桑托斯公司共同拥有。
Lance表示，目前为买方市场，液化天然气买家正在利用目前的现货液化天然气价格（处于三年低点，低于每百万英热5美元），要求供应商提供更短期的合同和更多的定价自由。就长期而言，预计目前的供过于求将在21世纪20年代中期收紧，届时，填补现有工厂的新气田将会出现，并将需要新的工厂，生产商需要与买家签订长期合同，以便能够为这些建筑项目提供资金。
Lance称：“从那时起，长期合同将满足两个需求：最终用户的供应安全和供应商担保其财务决策的需求安全。”
詹晓晶摘自路透社
原文如下：
ConocoPhillips sees weak LNG prices as short term issue
ConocoPhillips expects current weak global liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices to improve as growing demand soaks up the excess supply in the market, the company’s chief executive said on Tuesday.
“LNG prices are pretty weak right now, but we believe it’s a short term phenomenon,” ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Ryan Lance said at an industry conference in Australia.
“We just came out of a mild northern hemisphere winter. We believe that demand growth will absorb the current supply excess that exists in the market today,” he said.
ConocoPhillips operates the 3.7 million tonnes a year Darwin LNG plant in northern Australia and the 9 million tonnes a year east coast Australia Pacific LNG plant.
The company expects to make a final investment decision with its partners later this year on whether to develop the Barossa gas field to keep the Darwin LNG plant filled when supply runs out around 2022 from its current source, the Bayu Undan field in the Timor Sea.
Barossa, about 300 km (186 miles) north of Darwin, is co-owned by ConocoPhillips, South Korea’s SK E&S Co and Santos.
Lance said LNG buyers are taking advantage of current weak spot LNG prices, now at three-year lows below $5 per million British thermal units (mmBTU), to demand shorter term contracts and more pricing latitude from suppliers.
“It’s a buyer’s market today,” Lance said.
“As for the long term, we expect the current oversupply to tighten by the mid-2020s,” he said.
By then, new gas fields filling existing plants will have come onstream and new plants will be needed. Producers will need to line up longer term contracts from buyers to be able to fund those construction projects.
“Longer term contracts between then will satisfy two needs: security of supply for the end users and security of demand for suppliers to underwrite their financial decisions,” Lance said.
