Statoil to set up LNG trading desk in Singapore: sources

Norway’s Statoil (STL.OL) is setting up a desk in Singapore to trade liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Asia as more companies look to profit from rising demand for the fuel in China and India, traders said on Monday.

The energy firm, which already markets and trades crude oil and other refined products in the city-state, is in the process of hiring for a team of around 10 staff to engage in both spot trading and securing term supply deals, the sources said.

The company advertised for the positions of principal/leading negotiator and contracts consultant for the team in a local newspaper earlier this month.

“We are assessing and evaluating to set up an LNG-trading desk in Singapore, and this is part of our constant development of our LNG business,” said a Statoil spokesman in reply to queries from Reuters, without giving further details.

The company exports LNG from its Arctic Snoehvit gas field in the Barents Sea, which had an estimated gas production last year of 5.76 billion cubic metres, or about 480 million cubic metres per month, according to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

In February, Statoil told Reuters the market for Snoehvit LNG was primarily the Atlantic basin but they would sell to Asia when it was profitable.

“We assess Asia as a market increasing in importance due to its growth level on the demand side,” the company spokesman said.

China’s LNG imports alone are expected to rise around five-fold to 46 million tonnes by 2020 from just over 9 million tonnes of LNG in 2010, according to consultancy Bain & Co.

Companies are getting drawn to Singapore given the country’s business-friendly infrastructure and tax breaks.

At least a dozen global players, from oil majors Shell (RDSa.L) and BP (BP.L) to major lenders such as Citibank, have set up teams in the city-state in the past three years.

Statoil is aiming to boost its oil and gas output by a third over the next decade, with much of the new production coming on line after 2016, Chief Executive Helge Lund said in a presentation to investors in New York last week.