Australian gas suppliers have sought to reassure customers that local prices should not follow international prices higher after last week’s spike created fears of a potential surge, such as the one that occurred after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
LNG North Asia prices have doubled since the start of the war between the United States and Iran, and soared 11 per cent late last week to more than $US22 per million British thermal units. The spike occurred after Qatar LNG, the world’s second-largest supplier, said an Iranian missile strike had damaged its plant in Ras Laffan, cutting its export capacity by almost one-fifth, causing an estimated loss of $US20 billion ($28.4 billion) in annual revenue, and that it would take up to five years to repair. It’s a much longer outage than initially anticipated.