--DES Northeast Asia

In the DES Northeast Asia market last week, front month delivery prices moved around $12.55-12.85. Prices gained from a week earlier on the geological risk in the Middle East. Amid this, Kansai Electric Power Co (KEPCO) moved to sell cargo.

The kill of a political leader of the Islamic group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, raised tensions between Israel and Islamic countries such as Iran. "Sentiment of the energy market turned strong," a source pointed out. One European trader received buying inquiries for prompt second-half August delivery to September delivery from Japanese energy utilities.

KEPCO closed a sell tender on a DES basis on Aug 1. Offered in the tender was a cargo for Oct 12-14 delivery. As KEPCO has smaller storage capacity of LNG cargoes, compared to power demand in its supply area, "KEPCO tends to move on spot sales actively if inventory levels are more than planned even a little," according to a Japanese city gas company. The sell tender was awarded.

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

ADNOC Gas in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) closed a DES sell tender on Aug 1. ADNOC Gas planned to sell a cargo from the 5.80 mil mt/year Das Islands project for Sep 19-25 delivery to the Middle East. It was likely that the company was considering selling the cargo to Egypt, Jordan or Kuwait.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

Colombia's state-run Calamari LNG bought a partial cargo to be delivered to the 3.70 mil mt/year Cartagena terminal on Aug 9-19 from British BP via its tender closed on Jul 30. Although the awarded price was unclear, volumes appeared to be around 44,000mt, about a half of the full cargo. Buy tenders issued by Calamari LNG are frequently awarded to BP.