--DES Northeast Asia

With the stoppage of operations at the 15.00mil mt/year US Freeport project prolonged, concerns on supply disruptions were heightening. Moreover, a workers' strike at the 3.90mil mt/year Prelude project was extended and the 7.60mil mt/year Tangguh project had temporarily halted operations at the 3.60mil mt/year No.1 unit due to a glitch at pipelines. Under this situation, supply to Northeast Asia remained limited overall. On the other hand, demand was gradually increasing. INPEX procured via a tender closed last Tuesday an alternative cargo to replace supply from the 3.90 mil mt/year Prelude project. INPEX bought a cargo for Aug 1-5 delivery to the 2.10 mil mt/year Naoetsu terminal. The price was reportedly in the $25's. Additionally, Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) had remaining demand for summer cargoes and apparently purchased several cargoes for July to September. Apart from this, Korea Midland Power (KOMIPO) purchased one cargo for Aug 22-24 or Aug 29-30 delivery at a premium of 15-20cts to DES Northeast Asia spot quotations via a tender closed last Tuesday. As of last Thursday, DES Northeast Asia prices for first-half August delivery were assessed at $31.85, up $8.00 from Jun 10.

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

ADNOC LNG in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) opened a sell tender that closed last Thursday for a Jul 29-31 loading from the 5.60mil mt/year Das Islands. The producer aimed to offer the cargo on a DES basis for Asia delivery such as Northeast Asia. As reported, ADNOC LNG had spot availability for forward loading cargoes as it could accept expression of interest (EOI) for a cargo each month loading during April to September in 2023 and February, April, and June to September in 2024. A sell tender that had closed last Monday by Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) for a cargo to be loaded from the 5.00 mil mt/year Damietta project on Jun 28-29 was apparently cancelled.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

Some end-users in Argentina and Brazil seemed to show interest in spot procurement, although firm bids were not reported. Argentina's state-run IEASA was said to have demand for August to September delivery. Sources reckoned that the company might issue a buy tender in the near future. In addition, as the supply disruptions from the 15.00mil/year US Freeport project were expected to be prolonged, buying interest was likely to emerge from Brazil as well. As reported, Brazil had received three cargoes from the project in June. Under this situation, Brazil's state-run Petrobras might contemplate procuring alternative cargoes to replace supply from the project, according to sources.