--DES Northeast Asia

In the DES Northeast Asia market last week, the front delivery fell to around $13.80 in response to the decline in the Netherlands' TTF market as well as sluggish demand from Northeast Asia. Prices hit $12's temporarily.

Demand from Japanese end-users has not been observed. Rather, a market source guessed, "Kyushu Electric Power Co and Kansai Electric Power Co (KEPCO) may carry a surplus cargo." In fact, KEPCO was heard to consider selling cargoes for April-May delivery because the restart of its nuclear power stations has curbed demand for gas-fired power plants.

Osaka Gas announced on Feb 27 that it inked a sales and purchase agreement (SPA) with ADNOC for a long-term contract to receive cargo from the 9.60 Ruwais project on a DES basis. The SPA itself appeared to have been closed last December. Through the deal, Osaka Gas planned to accept 0.8 mil mt/year of LNG for 15 years starting late 2020.

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

Additional spot demand from Bangladesh came out. State-run Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd (RPGCL) floated a fresh buy tender closing Mar 2 for two cargoes to be delivered on Mar 9-10 and Mar 15-18.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

In Germany, natural gas industry officials have been talking with the government about renewing the standard of inventory replenishment, such as lowering the target from 90% to 80% full to storage capacity as of Nov 1. In the wake of this, "More participants feel that they don't need to quicken inventory building" (a Japanese company).