--DES Northeast Asia

In the DES Northeast Asia market last week, discussion levels for first-half January delivery slid to the low $15's because of the limited spot demand as well as expectations that natural gas prices in Europe might move lower. Several traders and portfolio players kept aggressive stance in selling spot cargoes for January delivery to Northeast Asia. On first-half January delivery, German RWE and Marubeni Corp showed their offers based on DES Northeast Asia spot quotations or the Netherlands' TTF natural gas market. RWE seemed to have two cargoes to sell. On second-half January delivery, European Vitol, European Glencore, DGI, a trading subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corp offered spot cargoes linked to DES Northeast Asia spot quotations or the Netherlands' TTF natural gas market. Amid this, European Trafigura procured a Dec 29-31 delivery cargo at flat to the January contract of DES Northeast Asia spot quotations on Nov 29 from JERA GM, a trading subsidiary of JERA. Trafigura also purchased three cargoes for Jan 3-4, Jan 16-18 and Jan 29-31 delivery at a discount of 15cts to the January contract of DES Northeast Asia spot quotations from PetroChina. Prior to this, PetroChina had offered a cargo each for early January delivery, mid-January delivery and late January delivery at a discount of 10cts while Trafigura had bid for first-half and second-half January delivery at a discount of 20cts, relative to the January contract of DES Northeast Asia spot quotations on Nov 28 to 29.

Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS) seemed to have room to purchase one or two cargoes for January delivery. Nevertheless, most energy utilities including KOGAS was currently trying to grasp the demand situation for winter and were cautious about entering talks at the moment. According to an energy utility in Northern Japan, "Gas demand for heating has been gradually growing but the increase in actual demand is not so drastic as requirement for spot LNG cargoes."

--FOB Middle East, DES South Asia and the Middle East

In South Asia, State-run Pakistan LNG Ltd (PLL) procured a cargo for Jan 8-9 delivery to the 9.80 mil mt/year Port Qasim terminal through a buy tender that closed on Nov 24. The winner in the tender was OQ Trading who placed the offer at $18.46, which became the awarded price in the end. The price was regarded as too expensive by other buyers. In the Middle East, state-run Oman LNG issued a sell tender on a DES basis. Through the tender, Oman LNG planned to sell two cargoes loading from the 10.40 mil mt/year Oman project for December delivery. With this tender, Oman LNG would sell a total of three cargoes for December delivery; the state-run firm usually sells two cargoes per month in the spot market.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

In most areas of Europe, temperatures have dropped at this moment. The long-range weather forecast for 12 Dec to 26 Dec, however, released by the Met Office in the UK on Nov 27 indicated, "Temperatures are most likely to be near or above average overall, although this doesn't rule out some spell of cold weather." As for the warm weather forecast, "The carryout pace of natural gas inventory in Europe might slow down" (a Japanese company) was heard. In Chile, South America, the daily highest temperature climbed to about 30 degrees Celsius in the second half of November, and this caused gas demand for air conditioning to gradually increase.