Weekly Mont Belvieu Propane-Butane Price Review May 5th 2023

By Godwin Okoduwa ــ Last Update 07 May 2023

Weekly Mont Belvieu Propane-Butane price review May 5th, 2023

Our assessment for last week's daily Mont Belvieu propane and butane in USD/mt (13.3% and 15% down respectively on the weekly average):

1st May: 363.1; 379.0

2nd May: 344.2; 352.8

3rd May: 332.5; 332.2

4th May: 342.9; 333.8

5th May: 358.7; 347.4

LPG Butane prices declined significantly for the second week; this time by 10.4%, at the end of last week; closing at 347.4 USD/MT against the previous week's close of 387.5 USD/MT. Butane hit its lowest since November 2020. We may see Butane prices hitting the 300 mark before any retracements.

Propane prices followed the same trend closing at 356.7 USD/MT; 7% Lower than the previous week's close of 386.7 USD/MT.

The reason for the bearish trend remains unchanged; Negative economic data from US and China continue to affect the price trend. There are factors that could make a rebound happen; like falling US oil inventories and lower production and export volumes from oil-producing countries.

Local LPG prices in Nigeria

Local prices at the depots settled officially at 10.1 Million per 20MT at 11 PLC. There was unconfirmed information of prices going lower than 10 Million at Stockgap depot. The highest LPG price was at Prudent Energy selling at 10.7 Million a bit of a decrease from the previous week's high. We expect supply pressures and dropping international prices to continue to push prices down.

On the retail side, the 12.5kg LPG cylinder sells for around N9000.00 to N10,000.00 in most parts of the country. March Retail price report showed some cities like Jigawa, Karu ( Abuja), and Akwa Ibom sold at the rate of over 10,000.00 per 12.5kg.