RAS Laffan

Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline restart has reduced a near-term crude supply constraint, although full restoration of flows is expected to take time. Natural gas remains the tighter market after QatarEnergy said attacks on Ras Laffan wiped out a significant share of LNG output.

Natural gas futures remained on the defensive as a large storage build outweighed strong summer cooling demand and firm LNG feedgas flows. Market participants continue to see production near record levels as the central reason weather-driven demand has not tightened the balance enough.