Turkey Dec LNG imports climb to multi-month high

LNG imports into Turkey in December reached their highest level since February as the country stocks up ahead of the expected increase in demand in the new year.

Turkish imports of LNG stood at 1.47 million mt so far in December, up from 610,000 mt in November, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights.

It is the highest volume since February, when Turkey imported 2.04 million mt.

Of the December total, 38% came from the US, while Algeria and Russia contributed around 37% and 10%, respectively. Egypt and Nigeria contributed around 10% and 5%, respectively.

Sources suggest that supply security in the East Mediterranean region has become a priority, with the East Med strongly increasing import levels in the previous months.

While supply remains healthy and demand relatively subdued, sources see demand rising in the Mediterranean compared with Northwest Europe. Additionally, although milder temperatures have kept supply comfortable in Turkey, traders still do not see any demand decline this year.

Traders also suggested that demand in Turkey is expected to rise in January and February as supply from Iran and North Africa may dwindle due to expected colder weather. As lower temperatures begin to take hold of the Turkish market, it will be expected to affect the North African and Iranian markets too. As a result, traders suggested that some of these supply sources may withhold their gas and LNG supply to keep for domestic consumption.

Demand, and imports, are expected to rise further in Turkey to feed domestic heating requirement needs. While cargoes are still available, sources said they were already seeing buying interest for January and February.

Despite expectations of higher demand for January and February, traders still expect prices to continue their general downtrend. Ample stocks should help to cushion any price hikes in the East Mediterranean for the rest of the heating season. Sources still expect prices to remain higher than in Northwest Europe though, where demand remains comparably lower.

Platts, part of S&P Global, on Dec. 22 assessed the February East Mediterranean Marker at $10.459/MMBtu, or at an 8.5 cents/MMBtu premium to the Northwest European LNG marker. This was also a 69 cents/MMBtu discount to the February TTF.