--DES Northeast Asia

In the DES Northeast Asia market last week, the front delivery softened to around $13.85. The increase in spot supply weakened the market.

China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) conducted an FOB sell tender closing on Dec 13. Offered in the tender was a cargo for Feb 26-28 loading from the 16.30 mil mt/year North West Shelf project in Australia. The company could apparently accept bids on a DES basis as well. A Japanese company said, "The fact that Chinese importers are trying to resell cargoes gives perceptions of much slacker supply/demand in Northeast Asia." In addition, spot cargoes of Russian origin were also available in the market. Even though details were unclear, Russian Sakhalin Energy was apparently offering two cargoes from the 10.80 mil mt/year Sakhalin 2 project for February delivery via a sell tender.

Japanese utilities have been in a wait-and-see mode with little interest in procurements. One of the city gas companies in western Japan said, "We keep using gas normally, as we planned." The gas company also said that the recent drop in temperatures was roughly normal, and an increase in gas demand for heating was not at such an outstanding level.

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

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) issued a tender to sell two cargoes. ADNOC was planning to sell one of the two cargoes on a DES basis for Jan 8-12 delivery to the West Coast of India or west there. The tender was closed on Dec 12. Furthermore, state-run Oman LNG closed a sell tender on Dec 12 for one cargo on a DES basis, as reported. It turned out that if destinations were Dubai or Kuwait, the cargo would be delivered on Jan 4-9.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

Ecuador appeared to have imported LNG for the first time. US Sycar imported ISO tank container LNG cargo from Peru to Ecuador in December. The volume was one million cubic feet in terms of natural gas conversion. The imported LNG was assigned to the factory of auto part manufacturer, Tecnova, located in Guayaquil City.