--DES Northeast Asia

　For delivery to Japan, new buying interest was not seen. Only Tohoku Electric Power contemplated buying October delivery. Buying interest decreased compared to June to first-half July. Many power companies including JERA had finished procuring LNG for summer delivery. In Japan, temperatures were high after the rainy season ended in mid-July and power demand was brisk. But in the Kansai region, the 826MW No.3 unit at the Mihama nuclear power plant and 1,180MW No.3 unit at the Oi nuclear power plant restarted in July and solar power generation in many parts of Japan also increased. Moreover, the 1,000MW Matsuura coal power plant of Kyushu Electric Power, which had been shut down temporarily due to glitches, resumed operations in July. Overall, power supply was ample. In the Tokyo area on Friday where the weather was cloudy, the power supply reserve ratio was at a high level of more than 20%. A Japanese company said that LNG stocks at power companies had been building up partly due to requests from the government. At present, power companies were concerned that a fall in demand might result in an excessive rise in inventories from September onwards.

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

　The 157,720cbm TFDE tanker "Seri Balhaf" was scheduled to load a cargo from the 5.60 mil mt/year Das Island project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday. The cargo was believed to have been sold by ADNOC LNG via a tender closed on Jun 22. As reported, "Seri Balhaf" was under long-time charter by TotalEnergies. The company was apparently lifting the cargo.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

　Argentina's state-owned IEASA had been inactive in spot purchase after buying four partial cargoes for delivery on Aug 19, Aug 25, Sep 4 and Sep 18 to the 6.10 mil mt/year Escobar terminal via a tender closed on Jul 6. In Argentina, the daily highest temperature was low at around 10 degrees Celsius and current gas demand for heating was firm. But from late August to September, temperatures were forecast to increase to 20 degrees Celsius and demand for use in power generation was likely to drop going forward. Sources perceived that IEASA had finished buying spot cargoes this winter and was unlikely to carry out new spot purchases.