The world markets were reversed and decreased slightly.

World market

According to Oilprice.com, at the end of the week, world prices of natural gas were reversed and slightly decreased by 1.24% (equivalent to a decrease of USD 0.041) to 3,438 USD/MMBTU at the time of the survey.

The end of winter in the northern hemisphere has reduced the demand for heating, which has caused temporary weakening of the demand for LNG consumption in key markets such as Europe and Asia. However, this decrease does not imply a long -term trend, especially since geopolitical factors and commercial policies continue to promote the demand for LNG.

In Europe, although the demand cooled compared to last month, LNG imports from the USA. They remained high. In March, the EU imported a record of 7.04 million tons of LNG from the US, a figure that decreased with respect to the 5.88 million tons of April, but still well above the last year of last year of 3.76 million tons/month. Since the beginning of 2025, the American LNG has represented 55% of the total GNL imports of Europe, a figure that President Trump can consider an achievement of foreign energy policy.

At the same time, Europe has reduced its total gas imports through the “destruction of demand”, that is, reducing consumption through efficiency measures and industrial adjustments. However, Russian gas still represents a significant portion of total imports, despite EU’s efforts to reduce dependence. This suggests that the demand for GNL imported from the US will continue to increase while Europe prepares to stock up for next winter.

In Asia, China suddenly stopped importing LNG from the United States, forced US exporters to resort to other clients in the region. Fortunately, Japan and South Korea remain important clients, while India is emerging as a potential destination, partly because it is working to reduce its commercial surplus with the United States, in line with the Trump administration direction.

But the United States faces a serious bottleneck in its supply chain: new rules of port rates for ships built in China, announced by the United States commercial representative, Jamieson Greer, aimed at promoting national naval construction. Meanwhile, most current metaneros ships are manufactured in China or South Korea, and the United States does not have locally built metaneous vessels and will not have enough capacity to build new ones before 2029. Ship organizations such as the Baltic and International Maritime Council and the PIMCO investment management firm have warned that the rule will increase shipping costs and disturb the exports of GNL.

In fact, the worldwide naval construction industry is overloaded: the demand for metaneros ships increased by 25% in 2024, and most orders were allocated to South Korea (68 ships) and China (41 ships). American exporters can use long -term Korean ships, but in the short term maritime transport will be affected if no adjustments are made in port policy.

This situation becomes even more urgent since LNG is expected to increase soon. Europe needs to store gas for winter and will continue to look for a complete replacement for Russian gas, regardless of the cost. The temporary suspension of the US imports of the US.

Internal market

Retail prices of the gas nationwide in May were stable for the second consecutive month, following the trend of global gas prices. Specifically, the public sale price of oil cylinders of Petrolimex (VAT included) in May 2025 in the Hanoi market is 457,400 VND/12 kg domestic cylinder; Industrial tank of 1,829,600 VND/48 kg, without changes compared to the sale price in April 2025.

For the east and west regions of the South, Southern Gas Trading Joint Stock Company (Gas South) announced that the retail price in May remains the same as in April, applicable to the company’s gas cylinder brands, including: Gas Dau Khi, VT-GAS, Gas and JP Gas. Consequently, the price of gas for consumers is 475,400 VND/12 kg cylinder and 1,784,111 VND/45 kg cylinder (VAT included).

A Oilimex Gas Corporation representative said that while the world average gas price in the contract for May 2025 was USD/ton, 10 USD/ton less than in April 2025, due to fluctuations in the exchange rate of the dollar, Petrolimex Gas Corporation did not make any price adjustment.