--DES Northeast Asia

In the DES Northeast Asia market last week, the front delivery fell to around $13.65. Along with the weak Netherlands' TTF market, the reselling activities by Chinese players lowered the market.

Demand from China and South Korea has been weak. The minimum temperature during nighttime in Beijing and Seoul fell below minus 10 degrees Celsius. In spite of this, no end-users appeared to seek LNG cargoes. In China, other than CNOOC, independent energy firms were reported to consider reselling.

In Japan, a strong cold spell has arrived at the Sea of Japan side, such as Yamagata and Niigata Prefectures, causing a heavy snowfall with 50-80 centimeters of snow. Many players, however, regarded the risk as not directly resulting in LNG spot procurements because they had already prepared for the increase in gas demand for heating and power for the winter storm in advance.

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

ADNOC Gas in the United Arab Emirates appeared to have sold cargo on a DES basis at $14.10-14.20. via a tender closed on Jan 7. Through the tender, ADNOC Gas planned to sell one cargo for delivery to India from the second half of January through the first half of February.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

More market players regarded the influences of the Russian gas supply outage to Europe via the Ukraine transit as small. A rise in temperature forecast for Northwest Europe after Jan 15 played a part in reducing gas demand.