You don't need Asia to get $12 for your LNG

Dragon LNG, an import facility in Wales owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd, boosted its supplies to the UK grid to the highest in three years on Tuesday. That came as cold weather pushed prompt prices to almost $12 a million British thermal units, matching the three-year high paid by buyers in North Asia for spot LNG this winter.

With strong demand forecast through this week, the limited supply from Dragon didn’t gush out. Flows from the terminal reached their maximum rate of about 7% of total UK supply at about 11:24 a.m. London time Tuesday, according to data from National Grid Plc.

The cold gripping Britain will last a few more days, raising the prospect of even higher prices. Dragon had about 111 million cubic meters of gas in storage on Monday, or just over a quarter of Tuesday’s anticipated demand, having not received a tanker since January.

Dragon is “delighted” to help boost the resilience of the UK energy system, it said by email.

This week’s freezing cold is big test of the European gas system, which might get more interesting, said Guillermo Baena Gomez, senior gas trader at Advantage Utilities Ltd. in London.

“This is not going to be like a Usain Bolt 100-meter race,” he said by phone. “This is going to be a marathon.”