--DES Northeast Asia
The DES Northeast Asia market rose. Prices for mainly discussed first-half October delivery strengthened by about $1.00 from early August to $4.10-4.20. A sense of oversupply weakened mainly for prompt timings since supply volume from the 16.50 mil mt/year Gorgon project, where glitches at a heat exchanger occurred in July, did not recover. A sense of tightness emerged as market players supposed it might take some time for facility repair works to be conducted. Some players such as Chinese independent players started refraining from buying spot cargoes amid the high market. Market sentiment, however, turned bullish since demand arose from Japanese and Taiwanese end-users.

--FOB Middle East, DES South Asia and the Middle East
Pakistan LNG awarded its buy tender closed on Aug 5 for one cargo for Aug 15-16 delivery to the 5.60 mil mt/year Gasport terminal to PetroChina International (PCI) under PetroChina. PCI had offered at 9.3421% of Brent crude prices. The tender was believed to have been awarded at the price. The 145,700cbm conventional tanker "Stena Blue Sky" carrying a Qatari cargo arrived at the 5.60 mil mt/year Gas Port terminal operated by Pakistan LNG on Aug 15 and finished discharging on Aug 16.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America
DES Europe market moved up. Prices for mainly discussed second-half September delivery were at $2.90-3.00, up around 50cts from early August. The market was at a premium to major European gas markets such as the Netherlands' TTF and Britain's NBP. The LNG market rose as the weather was severely hot and wind power generation was low. Further, demand emerged from Spain. This also contributed to the rise. Although most areas in Europe are connected by pipeline networks, there are fewer pipelines connecting the Iberian Peninsula where Spain and Portugal are located with other countries. Therefore, when gas demand increases, many players purchase LNG. In Spain, temperatures were forecast to remain above seasonal norms until the end of the month and air-conditioning demand was likely to be strong.