Tropical Cyclone Megan that hit Australia earlier this week has had little to no impact on operations at the country's LNG terminals, market and industry sources said in the week started March 18.
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RegistroNews reports of the cyclone lashing the country's northern territory, which resulted in operations moving out some residents from there, coupled with outages at Freeport LNG in the US, led to some bullishness in spot LNG prices in the past week.
This came as several Singapore-based traders said loadings at some facilities were on hold for one to two days as a precautionary measure, but saw markets moving by mid-week.
At least one Japanese offtaker said they were asked about shifting deliveries by one day for an LNG cargo from Australia, but added that there was no major disruption from suppliers. Supply concerns were more focused on Freeport LNG, market sources said.
The Platts-assessed JKM for May rose to $9.981/MMBtu on March 19, supported by the cyclone and production cut in the US -- the highest since Jan. 15, S&P Global Commodity Insights data showed. The price declined to $9.436/MMBtu on March 22, following limited disruption by the cyclone.
A Woodside Energy spokesperson said March 22, "Woodside takes normal precautions as part of cyclone preparedness to protect both people and assets. Our facilities are operating as normal."
Woodside is the operator and a joint venture partner in the North West Shelf project -- among the world's largest oil and gas projects -- and is situated in the north-west of Western Australia.
A source at another company with oil and gas assets in Australia also said that the cyclone had not impacted the company's facilities, adding that they did not envisage it having any bearing in the coming days.
Meanwhile, Cyclone Megan has weakened in intensity after making its landfall in the last few days, with the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology saying on its website March 22, "The risk of 09U [Cyclone Megan] has decreased, and it will no longer be tracked."