--DES Northeast Asia

In the DES Northeast Asia market last week, prices for second-half January delivery, front month, fell to a level in the low $12's. A declining trend in the Netherlands' TTF market, which was caused by mild temperatures and a high level of inventory, and thin buying interest from end-users in Northeast Asia lowered prices. So far, several players including British Shell, European trader Vitol, JERA and Aramco showed selling interest for mid to late January delivery. Six or more cargoes were apparently available. Offers were once heard at a premium of about 50cts to January DES Northeast Asia spot quotations. Fixed price offers seemed to have fallen to the $12's. A Japanese company said that since there were no signs of a cold snap arriving at the moment, this winter might pass without supply/demand tightening. As a result, market sentiment was weak.

Regarding outlook for the 2024 market, a Japanese city gas company gave a view that the market might move in a range of $12.00-14.00. The supply/demand situation for 2024 was expected to become similar to that for 2023. The city gas company, however, stated, "Even if supply/demand slackens, the market will be supported by traders that have short-covering demand."

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

With global ample supply, selling interest to Indian end-users were growing as a potential buyer. A Japanese company stated, "LNG demand is receding in Northeast Asia but Indian end-users occasionally buy spot cargoes if the market is reasonable." Therefore, sellers focused on spot sales for deliver to India by lowering their offers and discussion levels for January delivery slid to about $12.30. In the Middle East, Kuwait's scheduled volume of imports in December was just 60,000 mt. The figure was 14.3% compared with a month earlier and 30.0% with a year earlier.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

In Spain, a key LNG importing country in Europe, the highest daytime temperature on Dec 13 was forecast to be 20 degrees at metropolitan city Valencia, up as much as three degrees from the average daytime highest temperature in December. Some parts of southern Spain even saw the day's high near 30 degrees since the beginning of December. A source at a Japanese trading house said, "Spain is experiencing record-breaking warm weather. We can't expect any pickup in heating demand for the winter period." In South America, Colombia's state-run Calamari LNG issued an additional buy tender.