--DES Northeast Asia

　DES Northeast Asia prices softened by 55 from end last week to $12.85-13.15 for first-half September delivery. Many end-users felt that prices were relatively high and skipped spot purchase while supply from Russia and Australia was plentiful. End-users such as utility companies moving to resell term cargoes also contributed to perceptions of ample supply. As the DES Northeast Asia spot market was higher than long-term prices by $3.00-4.00, end-users tried to secure a profit by reselling term cargoes. On Thursday to Friday, three to four utility companies including Chinese state-owned companies considered selling August to September delivery. On Tuesday, Kansai Electric Power apparently sold a long-term cargo from the 4.30 mil mt/year Pluto project in Australia that would be loaded onto the 145,000cbm conventional tanker "LNG Ebisu" for September delivery to a Japanese city gas company. The price was said to be at a discount to DES Northeast Asia spot quotations.

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

　Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company sold a cargo loading Jun 24-26 to European trader Gunvor at $9.17 via a tender closed on May 25. Gunvor loaded a cargo during Jun 24-25 from the Idku project onto the 151,700cbm conventional tanker "Al Marrouna? h. Gunvor eventually sold the cargo for delivery to the 5.00 mil mt/year Gasport terminal in Pakistan on Jul 5. Gunvor had signed a contract with Pakistan LNG to sell around 12 cargoes a year under a five-year contract from 2017 and was believed to have supplied a cargo from the Idku project under the contract this time.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

　On July 5th, NBP prices reached the highest level in several tens of years and TTF prices reached a record high due to concerns of a fall in natural gas supply from Russia and tight supply/demand in the European natural gas market. Russia's Gazprom had conducted a tender for the use of a pipeline via Ukraine starting October for four years while Belarus and Poland jointly carried out a tender for use of a pipeline from October for five years but there were no participants in these tenders. Russia considered start up the Nordstream 2 pipeline that passes under the Baltic Sea to send gas to Germany.