Commodities Focus

Global LNG trade is up, but North Asia is not part of the growth story. Stephanie Wilson, Platts managing editor for LNG, talks about the volatility in LNG spot prices, the key drivers of price movements, and the potential impact of upcoming availability of flexible LNG supply.This is the latest in...

Platts Stuart Elliott, associate editorial director, Europe and Africa oil news, Rosemary Griffin, associate editor, and Beatrice Bedeschi, editor, discuss the possible impact of international sanctions against Russia on oil and gas projects -- both current and future -- at Sakhalin Island. We...

China's National Development and Reform Commission recently asked major power utilities to reduce coal imports, while Indonesia is implementing a new export license rule. In India, the Supreme Court has ruled that coal blocks allocated between 1993 and 2010 are illegal. Deepak Kannan, Platts...

The cold winter had many in the US coal industry hoping for sustained demand increases and higher prices. But as Andrew Moore, managing editor of Platts Coal Trader, explains, prices for Powder River Basin and Central Appalachian coal didn't react quite as expected, and now transportation issues...

Japan is facing the summer power demand peak season without nuclear power for the first time. Stephanie Wilson, Platts managing editor for Asia LNG, and Eriko Amaha, Platts associate editor for Asia LNG, discuss how the Japanese power market is coping with the season's demand; the possibility of...

Platts Darren Stetzel, power markets editor, discusses the evolving Turkish power generation mix as official energy ministry forecasts predict the need for 100 GW of installed generating capacity in Turkey by 2023, up from today's 66.6 GW. Demand is forecast to more than double through to 2023. We...

Natural gas futures and spot traders have little reason to be bullish as colder-than-normal temperatures blanket natural gas burning markets, with one exception: California. Production is still increasing, easing storage woes, and municipally owned utilities are taking advantage of current markets...

Oil companies are swapping acreage in the US to become more efficient and better plan drilling and midstream infrastructure. Starr Spencer, Platts senior editor, oil news, discusses which companies have been swapping land recently, including Chesapeake Energy, which did a swap in Wyoming's Powder...

The bulls are fleeing the North American natural gas market as hopes for a hotter-than-normal summer have disappeared. That leaves the bears in charge with moderate August weather in the forecasts and predictions of five more weeks of above-average storage injections. Also: Appointing a former...

US spot ethylene assessments rose to their highest levels in more than a year earlier in the week, and the tightness in the polyethylene export market hearkens back to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. US petrochemical editors Chris Ferrell and Pavel Pavlov discuss how prices are moving, attempts...