--DES Northeast Asia

In discussions among traders and portfolio players, tradable levels for December delivery were widely evaluated at discounts of around 5cts to DES Northeast Asia spot quotations for December. Offers outpaced bids, forcing sellers to make a compromise to buyers and clinch deals at lower prices. A source at a Japanese enterprise said, "If the temperatures in winter go above the previous forecasts, trade levels could witness even deeper discounts to DES Northeast Asia spot quotations." But not a few players demonstrated buying interest. In the market on Oct 29, a combined four cargoes changed hands for December-January delivery. European Trafigura bought one cargo for Dec 1-3 delivery from British BP. BP purchased one cargo for Dec 16-18 delivery from German RWE. British Shell took one cargo for Dec 21-23 delivery from RWE. All of those deals were clinched at a discount of 8cts to DES Northeast Asia spot quotations for December. Meanwhile, RWE bought one cargo for Jan 4-6 delivery from QatarEnergy Trading (QET) at a discount of 8cts to DES Northeast Asia quotations for January. Elsewhere, four bids were placed for December delivery at discounts of 7-8cts to DES Northeast Asia quotations for December and fixed prices of $10.90-11.11. On the other hand, more than 10 cargoes were still on offer for December delivery. Offers for December delivery stood at a discount of 8cts to a premium of 5cts to DES Northeast Asia quotations for December and fixed prices of $11.12-11.30.

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

State-owned Oman LNG awarded its FOB sell tender closed on Oct 22 for a cargo loading Nov 19-21 from the 11.40mil mt/year Oman project.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

Algerian Sonatrach closed an FOB sell tender on Monday for a cargo to be loading form the 20.80 mil mt/year Arzew project or the 4.50 mil mt/year Skikda project on Nov 5. It was the first time for Sonatrach to conduct sell tender in about three months.