The chief executive of Malaysia’s state energy firm Petronas said on Tuesday that a gas price at US$7-US$8 per metric million British thermal units (mmBtU) could be a “sweet spot” for customers and allows investments to continue to happen.
“Natural gas needs to be embraced as a transition fuel. A decarbonised future does not mean hydrocarbon-free future,” Tengku Muhammad Taufik said at the Gastech industry conference in Dubai.
Global gas prices have been rallying all summer due to low storage inventories, high demand for gas in Asia, less Russian and LNG supply to Europe than usual, high carbon prices and outages.
The average liquefied natural gas price for November delivery into Northeast Asia was estimated at about US$24 to US$25 per mmBtu last week.
Benchmark Dutch natural gas prices in northwest Europe have surged to around US$25/mmBtu from around US$6-7/mmBtu at the start of the year.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Alexander Cornwell and Yousef Saba in Dubai; writing by Marwa Rashad in London; editing by Nina Chestney)