JKM globalises the gas market

In Asia, an increasingly liberalised LNG market has enabled the region to mitigate a lack of interconnected pipeline infrastructure

LNG liberalisation—the move from a procurement structure to one that is market-based—has globalised the natural gas market, creating a virtual pipeline between continents. On the supply side, the shale gas revolution turned the US into a net gas exporter, while independent terminal developer Cheniere’s pioneering business model of selling LNG on a free-on-board (Fob) basis indexed to a gas benchmark is widely credited as a catalyst for the change in market structure. For LNG buyers, the unwinding of long-term legacy LNG contracts and access to US gas that held, initially at least, a large discount to price levels in the demand centres of Europe and Asia further precipitated this development.