--DES Northeast Asia

In the DES Northeast Asia market last week, front month delivery prices moved around $11.30-11.60, down from a week earlier. Prices fell on a weak the Netherland's TTF natural gas market. Despite the demand from Japanese and Korean end-users, "Spot supply is plentiful and there is no bullish sentiment in the market" (a Japanese company).

Kansai Electric Power Co (KEPCO) has bought one cargo for delivery on Aug 26-28 via a tender closed on Jul 10. Tohoku Electric Power Co has purchased one cargo delivered to Niigata for delivery on Aug 25-Sep 3 vie a tender closed on Jul 11. Korea Midland Power Co (KOMIPO) floated a buy tender that would be closed on Jul 17.

High temperatures might have driven the players to issue buy tenders, but some said the trend would not continue. "The updated weather forecasts indicate the maximum daily temperatures being below a year earlier, unlike the previous forecasts suggesting higher temperatures that affected ongoing procurements" (a European trader). LNG demand from a Japanese gas company has been low due to weak heating water usage.

Spot procurement activities by Chinese players have been weak, mainly owing to the higher LNG spot prices compared with domestic natural gas and lorry LNG prices.

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

In India, on talks for August delivery, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) closed its buy tender on Jul 10 for an Aug 17 delivery cargo. Nevertheless, domestic gas demand was receding due to monsoon, buying interest for prompt delivery cargoes was generally tepid, according to sources.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

In Europe, air-conditioning demand was weak. The weather forecast initially indicated that temperatures in Northwest Europe for the second week of July would be normal or slightly above, but ended up being below normal repeatedly. For the third week of July, the daily maximum temperatures were expected to be around 26 degrees Celsius in France and Belgium, implying lower probabilities for robust air conditioning demand. A Japanese company said, "It is hard to imagine the Olympic Paris game may stimulate gas demand."