--DES Northeast Asia

Production at the 28.00 mil mt/year Bintulu project in Malaysia might recover sharply from early February. As reported, state-owned Petronas, the operator of the Bintulu project, was setting up a temporary production facility capable of removing mercury from gas fields of the Tiga project. Petronas prepared to start the temporary production facility in early February instead of March as previously planned. If the facility began operations, production at the Tiga project would recover by around 60% from its current production. Petronas began to withdraw the cancellations of several cargoes for March to April delivery to some long-term customers such as Japanese power companies. The number of cancelled cargoes to long-term customers for February delivery was expected to fall by half going forward.

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

European Gunvor informed Pakistan LNG (PLL) in 2021 that a long-term cargo would be cancelled. The cargo was scheduled to load at the 15.00 mil mt/year US Freeport project and delivered to Pakistan on Jan 10-11. Although Gunvor and PLL continued to negotiate, the long-term cargo would likely be cancelled. A South Asian end-user reckoned that PLL would likely decrease natural gas supply to domestic end-users if the cargo was cancelled.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

India's GAIL awarded its swap tender for a cargo loading at the 22.50 mil mt/year US Sabine Pass project on May 23. Prices were reportedly linked to the US Henry Hub natural gas market. The spread between selling prices for ex-US cargoes and buying prices for India delivery was said to be in the low to mid $3.00's. This spread took into account differences between prompt and forward prices and freight rates from the US to India.