Singapore Grows As Asian Trading Nexus

18 Jul 2014: Singapore’s reputation as an LNG center continues to rise as industry players with Asian market ambitions set up trading desks in the island state. Building on its legacy producing assets in Malaysia and Brunei, Royal Dutch Shell was the first player to establish a desk in Singapore back in 2005 and has steadily increased its presence in the country. Japanese trader Itochu followed with a small representative office two years later. But the trend really gathered momentum with the entry in 2009 of Russia’s Gazprom and others trading operations with profit and loss responsibility. “At the beginning you had the likes of Itochu with one or two guys looking to pick up market intel but without their own P&L statements,” one veteran trader says. “The market only paid attention after Gazprom came into the picture and immediately staffed up to market its spot cargoes from Sakhalin 2.” Others quickly followed, with BP setting up shop in 2010 backed by a full team of traders, originators, operations staff, shipping personnel and risk management experts. By 2013, Singapore was host to more than 20 LNG trading desks and the list is expected to grow further. Download Here