--DES Northeast Asia

　Japanese end-users moved on spot purchase while Chinese and Taiwanese companies withdrew from the market due to the Lunar New Year holidays. In Japan, temperatures were low in January and power demand increased. Malaysian state-owned Petronas moved again to cancel supply from the Bintulu project, leaving power companies, city gas companies and some major energy companies with no choice but to procure alternative cargoes in the spot market. Regarding the Bintulu project, in accordance with the agreement in the Annual Delivery Program (ADP), Petronas did not cancel supply to some power and city gas companies such as Hokkaido Electric Power and Hokuriku Electric Power. But supply from mid-March onwards was uncertain at the moment since Petronas needed to check the production situation. A Japanese company said that long-term customers of Bintulu were paying attention to when the next cargo would be cancelled. This week, Kansai Electric Power moved to purchase March delivery for stock adjustment and to sell forward delivery such as in May via a swap deal.

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

　Qatargas was increasing supply volume to the UK. Qatar Petroleum (QP), the parent company of Qatargas, has usage right of the 15.40 mil mt/year South Hook terminal in the UK. The terminal did not take cargoes from the 77.00 mil mt/year Ras Laffan last December. But in January, the terminal received four tankers with ex-Ras Laffan cargoes including the first tanker, the 210,100cbm Q-Flex tanker "Al Khayatta", which arrived on Jan 17. A European trader mentioned that since supply concerns over Russian natural gas intensified in Europe in the high-demand winter season, Qatargas increased supply to its own terminal.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

　The 170,000cbm DFDE tanker "Methane Patricia Camila" carrying a cargo from the 15.30 mil mt/year Atlantic LNG project in Trinidad and Tobago arrived at the 2.50 mil mt/year Quintero terminal on Jan 30. GNL Chile's intake in January was 25% more than previous years. In Chile, due to a prolonged water shortage, hydropower generation was low and gas-fired thermal power generation increased. Most cargoes were supplied by a British Major Shell and France's Total Energies under long-term contracts. Prices for second-half March delivery were at the same level as first-half March delivery at $26.00-26.30.