--DES Northeast Asia

Russia's Gazprom announced on Sep 2 that it signed a legally-binding agreement with China for construction of gas pipeline "Power of Siberia 2". Gazprom unveiled a plan to supply to China natural gas in a maximum of 5 billion cubic meters every year for a 30-year period. But China refrained from making any comments on the construction plan for Power of Siberia 2 at this point. Thus, a source at a Japanese enterprise said, "China calls it a legally binding agreement, but it may be actually a restrictive contract with special price conditions." Under the circumstances, the prospect of Power of Siberia 2 remains dim and market players just monitored the fate of the pipeline construction. As a matter of fact, Gazprom had yet to disclose any details of the contract, leaving the contract volumes, construction timetable and starting point of gas supply opaque. Meanwhile, both countries were said to have agreed to boost gas supply to China by 6 billion cubic meters every year via existing pipeline "Power of Siberia".

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

Indian state-run Bharat Oil Co Ltd (BPCL) procured a mid-November delivery cargo at $10.20-10.30 out of two cargoes for November delivery through the tender closed last Monday. Moreover, according to a Japanese company, "A cargo for 2027 delivery might be awarded as well." The company had an option to accept offers for a total of three cargoes to be delivered in 2026 and 2027.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

State-run Angola LNG floated a sell tender on a DES basis. The tender offered one cargo out of the 5.2 mil mt/year Angola project for September-October delivery. The designated destination would be South America, Europe, Middle East and Asia, with delivery to Northeast Asia as the northernmost destination scheduled during Oct 11-16. Angola LNG was slated to load the cargo in 174,000 cubic meter MEGA tanker "Kool Tiger".