--DES Northeast Asia

In the DES Northeast Asia market last week, prices fell. Front month delivery prices moved around $13.20-13.50. A loose supply/demand balance worldwide weighed on prices.

Arbitrage cargoes from North America and West Africa were flowing into Northeast Asia. PetroChina Co Ltd, European Vitol, British Centrica had room to sell second-half October delivery to first-half November delivery. Additionally, German EnBW (Energie Baden Wuerttemberg) and European Glencore had spot availability for prompt first-half October delivery.

Russian Sakhalin Energy was said to have sold a cargo for end-October loading from the 10.80 mil mt/year Sakhalin 2 project to be delivered to Northeast Asia on Nov 1-5 to a Chinese player based on DES Northeast Asia spot quotations via a DES sell tender closed on Sep 3. The awarded price was equivalent to the low-mid $13's, according to a source. Some end-users in Japan and China were seen to contemplate reselling cargoes in the spot market, which also growing perceptions of plentiful supply.

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

Indian Oil Corp Ltd (IOC) bought one cargo for delivery on Oct 11-16 at $13.60-13.70 via its tender closed on Aug 29. IOC had initially planned to buy two cargoes for delivery on Sep 25-29 in addition to the Oct 11-16 delivery cargo but skipped buying the September delivery cargo as offer levels had been above IOC's expectation.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

The natural gas inventory data in Europe published by the Gas Infrastructure in Europe (GIE) was 92.52% of the full capacity as of Sep 2; they continued to increase in September. Moreover, on the offshore side, ships waiting for discharging have gradually been increasing, growing a perception of surplus. In major cities in Europe, such as London and Paris, the maximum daily temperatures have been hovering around 20-25 degrees Celsius, receding power demand for air conditioning.