--DES Northeast Asia

Severe heat waves gave a boost to gas demand for air-conditioning and power generation. But a source at a Japanese city gas provider said, "With a slump in industrial demand, gas sales will eventually end up in meeting previous forecasts more or less." Meanwhile, some end-users apparently faced prolonged long positions as they contracted to take LNG cargoes starting the low to mid $2020s based on the demand assumption before the COVID-19 outbreak or Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The phenomenon not only left thin room for spot demand even in this peak-demand period, but prompted those end-users to resell excess cargoes from time to time. Despite that, some spot demand emerged as well. In China, Beijing Gas this week snatched up two cargoes for second-half September delivery. The prices were at $11.60-11.70. In addition, Zhejiang Energy was also found to have last week secured one cargo for prompt delivery. Some sources believed any price around the mid $11 level would encourage Chinese players to seek cargoes. But an energy analyst in Japan pointed out, "Chinese end-users may bear penalty over their utilization of LNG terminals if they fail to take as large volumes as originally applied for. In this sense, their buying could have been aimed at averting penalty rather than driven by attractive prices.

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

State-owned Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Co Ltd (RPGCL) in Bangladesh issued a DES buy tender that would close on Aug 17. The company attempted to purchase three cargoes for Oct 6-7, Oct 19-20 and Oct 21-22 delivery through the tender. The company had cancelled buying a cargo for Oct 19-20 delivery via the previous tender closed on Aug 10. On the other hand, RPGCL had purchased a Sep 10-11 delivery cargo from Aramco Trading at $11.97 and an Oct 8-9 delivery cargo from PetroChina at $11.90 via the tender.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

State-run Calamari LNG issued a buy tender closing Thursday for a partial cargo each for September and October delivery. A Japanese company said, "Depending on the seller's operation, a full cargo may be halved and be discharged twice."