--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

　After partial cargoes from the Freeport project were supplied from Feb 10 to the 155,000cbm DFDE tanker "Kmarin Diamond" and 180,000cbm X-DF tanker "Prism Agility", a small lot of about 35,000mt was supplied on Tuesday to the 174,000cbm X-DF tanker "LNG Rosenrot". Thereafter, on Thursday to Friday, the 180,000cbm DFDE tanker that was chartered by JERA, a long-term customer of the project, berthed and proceeded to load a cargo. The project had been supplied with natural gas intermittently since January and stocks at storage reserve facilities were seen to be building up but since the US authorities had yet to grant approval for the restart of liquefaction facilities at the moment, these cargoes were believed to be shipped using LNG remaining in storage reserve facilities. Freeport LNG had applied to the US authorities on Monday to resume operations of liquefaction trains. A Japanese company said that the application submitted was likely to be for the restart of the No.3 liquefaction train which was not affected by the fire that had occurred in June last year. But sources reckoned that approval would not be granted immediately.

--DES Northeast Asia

　For a buy tender that had closed on Monday issued by China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), portfolio players as well as traders won 10 cargoes in total for June 2023 to June 2024 delivery to China at a premium of 15-20cts to DES Northeast Asia quotations. Through the tender, CNOOC was looking for up to six cargoes. China was receiving supply for natural gas via pipelines from Russia as well as Central Asia and natural gas production from domestic gas fields also seemed smooth. CNOOC, however, apparently intended to secure spot cargoes as much as possible before demand for building up stocks toward the next winter increased globally.

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

　Thailand's PTT Public Co (PTT) was moving to buy additional cargoes for April delivery. The company issued a buy tender on a DES basis that would close on Friday. Through the tender, PTT was looking for three cargoes to be delivered on Apr 18-19, Apr 20-21 and Apr 22-23 to the 10.70 mil mt/year Map Ta Phut terminal. As reported, PTT had bought two March delivery cargoes and one April delivery cargo at $15.00-16.00 from portfolio players via its tender closed on Feb 9. In Thailand, as temperatures were rising at the moment toward a hot season, PTT was recently interested in buying April to May delivery so that it could cover an increase in gas demand for power generation as well as air conditioning.