The Middle East war and the resulting production halt at the world\u2019s second-largest LNG exporter, Qatar, are erasing the projected glut of the fuel that was expected before the region was set on fire, according to Morgan Stanley.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Qatar\u2019s state energy firm QatarEnergy last week halted LNG production at its Ras Laffan hub, the world\u2019s largest LNG complex, and later issued force majeure<\/a> notices to buyers, following a drone attack at the facility and the all but halted tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n If the outage in Qatar extends beyond one month, this \u201cquickly brings a deficit\u201d to the market, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a note on Sunday, as carried by Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n Before the war, Morgan Stanley and all other investment banks and forecasters had anticipated a wave of excess LNG supply<\/a> to hit the market as soon as this year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Set OilPrice.com as a preferred source in Google here<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the war in the Middle East is now upending all previous forecasts and assumptions, with the LNG market seen in a deficit very soon if the world\u2019s second-biggest exporter after the United States doesn\u2019t restore supply within a month. <\/p>\n Even if the war were to end today, Qatar would likely need \u201cweeks to months\u201d to \u200creturn to a normal schedule and cycle of energy deliveries, Qatar\u2019s Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi told the Financial Times<\/a> in an interview published on Friday.<\/p>\n Oil prices could soar to as much as $150 per barrel within two to three weeks if the critical Strait of Hormuz remains off limits for tankers, al-Kaabi told FT.\u00a0<\/p>\n Oil already hit $100 per barrel<\/a> on Monday while natural gas prices in Asia and Europe continued to soar.\u00a0<\/p>\n Following a 50% weekly jump<\/a> last week, Europe\u2019s benchmark natural gas prices surged by another 20% as trade opened in Amsterdam on Monday as Asia is attracting most flexible-destination LNG cargoes away from Europe amid renewed competition for supply.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com<\/a><\/p>\n