--DES Northeast Asia

Buying inquiries from end-users in Northeast Asia were limited. This was because supply/demand was slack and many end-users felt that the current market was relatively high. Most end-users in Japan were seen to cover demand with long-term cargoes. Rather, JERA was said to be showing selling interest for June and July delivery. A Japanese company said, "JERA must be offering the cargo to adjust its inventories but we can simply say that JERA has excess cargoes. If supply/demand was tight, they could not release prompt delivery cargoes even for a swap deal." Additionally, Chinese players were also keen on spot sales. China National Offshore and Oil Corp (CNOOC) floated a sell tender closing Friday on an FOB basis. Offered in the tender was a cargo to be loaded from the 16.30 mil mt/year North West Shelf (NWS) project in Australia on Jul 3-5. In recent months, Chinese companies were trying to resell cargoes of US origin to Europe due to tariff policy of the US but a source commented, "LNG cargoes of other origins such as Australia are also subject to their resale. LNG demand from China cannot be observed, maybe because of recession. As a result, China is apparently able to meet gas demand with natural gas imported via pipelines as well as natural gas produced from local gas fields." On Apr 29, CNOOC had also closed a swap tender whereby it would sell May delivery and would buy June to July delivery.

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

Spot demand from South Asia was steady. State-run Indian Oil Corp (IOC) issued a buy tender for a cargo to be delivered to the 5.00 mil mt/year Ennore terminal on Jun 1-10. Sources perceived that the tender closed on Thursday. Bangladeshi state-run Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd (RPGCL) had bought a cargo for Jun 26-27 delivery at $12.18 via its tender closed on Monday. The awardee was European Gunvor.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

Angola LNG closed a tender on May 14 to sell one cargo loading from the 5.20 mil mt/year Angola project. The delivery date of the cargo was from May 24 through Jun 15.