--DES Northeast Asia

Intense summer heat continued to boost gas demand for power generation. In Tokyo, the peak power demand reached 54.57GW on Aug 21, marking the third largest this summer. On Aug 22 as well, the highest temperature rose near 35 degrees, and "the peak demand could expand as much as 55GW," an industry source said. In Japan, many end-users built up LNG inventories relatively high for the summer season well in advance. But stronger-than-expected power demand prompted some buyers to push forward the intake of term contract cargoes, ending up in inventory shortfalls in the upcoming months. Market sentiment was not bearish as light rainfall failed to alleviate drought concerns. Despite that, discussions for September delivery already ran the course in the DES Northeast Asia market. End-users already shifted attention to the winter period. On top of that, power producers were seen reluctant to seek spot cargoes for prompt delivery as they were expected to slash output or halt operation at gas-fired plants in a bid to cope with growing output from photovoltaic generation and keep the supply/demand situation balanced in summer.　

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

State-run Indian Oi Corp (IOC) had procured a cargo for Sep 14-21 delivery to the 17.50 mil mt/year Dahej terminal via its tender closed on Wednesday. The awarded price was at $10.73.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

Argentina's state-run IEASA secured a combined five cargoes for August delivery from British BP via a tender closed on Jul 15, in a bid to meet growing heating demand in the aftermath of the polar wave. But IEASA apparently decided this week to postpone receiving one of those cargoes amid sufficient inventories at hand.