--DES Northeast Asia

In the DES Northeast Asia market last week, front month delivery, second-half March recovered to $9.60-9.90 once. Production cuts at the 15.00 mil mt/year US Freeport project, along with fell spot demand from China, supported the market.

The US Freeport LNG, the operator of the Freeport project, announced on Jan 26 that one of three trains at the project would stop operation for a month owing to a power system trouble caused by a cold spell. Japanese end-user said that while nothing special happened, there were worried that this might impact supply not only in Europe but also in Northeast Asia.

Buying interest from Chinese importers was increasing. Several Chinese players including China National Offshore and Oil Corp (CNOOC) seemed to procure six cargoes at least for March to April delivery in the past one week. The prices were reported at about $9.50. Moreover, CNOOC closed a buy tender for second-half March delivery to May delivery on Thursday. Sources had views that CNOOC could buy three or six cargoes via the tender though the specific number of cargoes was uncertain.

On Jan 31, JERA stopped operations at 1,070MW No.5 unit of the Taketoyo coal-fired thermal power plant in Central Japan due to an explosion at a boiler facility. The restart was uncertain at the moment. Some sources gave views that spot LNG demand for thermal power plants as an alternative fuel might come out but JERA was apparently not moving on spot purchase for LNG.

The Biden Administration in the U.S. announced a pause of approval for new LNG projects to consider the assessment of environments. While most players saw the limited impacts of the delay of the launch of the new projects owing to a loose supply/demand balance in 2026 and onwards, "The LNG projects, which mainly have long-term contracts with clients in Northeast Asia who place a high value on stable supply, might consider the influences of the launch "(a Japanese end-user) .

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

On delivery to India, Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) bought a cargo for March 20-31 delivery to the 17.50 mil mt/year Dahej terminal via its tender closed on Jan 30. The awarded price was reported at around $9.20. GSPC bought a total of three cargoes in January. An Indian end-user said that "All the cargoes were awarded at low $9s. This level seems to be their target". In the Middle East, Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) closed a buy tender on Thursday. Through the tender, KPC was looking for at least a cargo to be delivered on Feb 20 to May 31.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

The Biden Administration in the US announced a pause of approvals for new LNG projects to consider environmental assessment. Regarding the effect of the policy, JERA commented, "We don't have any impacts on our fuel procurement at this moment. For middle-to-long-range environments for fuel procurement, we are working together with various parties who have interests. We will continue to gaze at how US government policy will develop." JERA inked a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with Venture Global to receive 1.00 mil mt/year of LNG for 20 years from the 24.00 mil mt/year CP2 project in LA, which might be affected by the freeze of approval. In the Latin America, imports into Jamaica turned into an increase.