Latin American supply and demand trends diverge

The region’s appetite for LNG has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, but exports have proved more robust

The regional supply and demand stories have been quite different so far in Latin America in 2020. Demand has been shellacked, but LNG producers have had a better time. As in most of the rest of the world, broad quarantine measures put a dampener on gas requirements for power production, while manufacturing activity, especially through Q2, fell into deep contraction.  Even now, as an economic recovery takes hold in varying degrees across the region, LNG demand remains materially weak, especially against 2019. The region’s LNG imports finished August at just 1.16mn t, marking a decline of 0.73mn t against year-earlier levels and slightly further below the five-year seasonal average of 1.94mn t