--DES Northeast Asia

Discussions bound for Northeast Asian end-users remained at the low ebb. Most buyers already fulfilled their requirements to cope with late-summer hot weather. But the post-August heat was prolonged, and demand may have grown noticeably. In Tokyo, the peak power demand expanded to 53.04GW on Sep 17, exceeding the 50GW mark for a second straight day. An industry source said, "The highest temperature dropped compared with August, but high humidity is keeping robust air-conditioning demand." In normal years, meanwhile, regular maintenance at power stations should have gone into full swing starting September. But power utilities struggled to tackle lingering late-summer heat and found it difficult to shut down their plants in September. The utilities would have to finish regular maintenance before the peak-demand period starting December. Thus, the maintenance could concentrate in October and November, leaving a threat that power supply-demand fundamentals could tighten up in October and November though those two months fall on the non-peak demand period. Under the circumstances, one power utility ruled out a possibility to buy spot LNG cargoes before winter. But some players believed leading power utilities may beef up swaps trading in a bid to optimize supply-demand positions.

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

State-run Indian Oil Corp (IOC) was found to have closed a sell tender on a DES basis on Sep 16. In the tender, QatarEnergy apparently won one cargo for Oct 30-Nov 7 delivery to the 5 mil mt/year Ennor terminal at $10.80-10.90. In addition, IOC closed a fresh buy tender on Sep 17. The tender sought one cargo for Oct 1-Nov 7 delivery to the 17.5 mil mt/year Dahej terminal. Elsewhere, India's independent power utility Torrento Power was also found to have closed a buy tender on Sep 17. The tender called for one cargo to be delivered to the 17.5 mil mt/year Dahej terminal during Nov 1-30.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

State-run Angola LNG issued a sell tender out of the 5.2 mil mt/year Angola project. In the tender closing on Sep 17, Angola LNG offered one cargo for October delivery to South America, Europe, Middle East, South Asia or Southeast Asia.