--DES Northeast Asia

In the DES Northeast Asia(NEA) market last week, the front delivery fell to around $11.20 in response to the weak demand.

Japanese end-users have been cautious in spot procurement so far. Few end users were seen to have rooms to purchase cargo except JERA --player who has a large tank capacity. Moreover, JERA appeared to consider that it can fill its domestic demand with inventory at its hand and long-term contracts. This summer in Japan, the rainy season was expected to end soon, and the summer was to last longer; as a result, while an increase in demand might occur anytime, many thought it might still be too early for spot procurement, as "probably nobody will buy now" (a utility company in eastern Japan) was heard in the market. With the restart of the 825 MW No. 2 unit at the Onagawa nuclear power station last December, Tohoku Electric Power Co. appeared to have a margin in power supply; Tohoku Electric said it had no plan to procure LNG cargo for a while.

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

Bangladeshi state-owned Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd (RPGCL) issued a buy tender on a DES basis that would close on Apr 27. Through the tender, RPGCL was seeking a total of three cargoes to be delivered on May 22-23, Jun 5-6 and Jun 19-20. As reported, The company attempted to buy May 22-23 and Jun 5-6 delivery cargoes but skipped awarding them since offers did not match expectations.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

Angola LNG floated a sell tender for two cargoes from the 5.20 mil mt/year Angola project for May delivery on a DES basis. The tender would close on Apr 24 with validity until Apr 25. These cargoes were expected to be transported by the 164,000cbm DFDE tanker "Malanje" and the 160,500cbm conventional tanker "Sonangol Sambizanga". Destinations of these cargoes would be South America, Europe, the Middle East, South Asia or Southeast Asia.