--DES Northeast Asia

Supply/demand was perceived to be slack and both buyers and sellers were not active in talks. As temperatures in Japan were similar to previous years, additional demand was thin and a Japanese end-user would not be surprised if no buyers moved to purchase within the year. Further, several buyers could balance their supply/demand by taking long-term cargoes under their Annual Delivery Program (ADP) and had no room for spot purchase in the first place. As a result, sellers were also not keen on spot sale for delivery to Northeast Asia. One player considered selling a cargo from the Atlantic for February delivery but eventually sold the cargo back to its supplier as the player found it difficult to secure a profit margin amid perceptions of slack supply/demand. Moreover, as production from the No.2 liquefaction train at the 14.00 mil mt/year LNG Canada project had started in early November, supply from Canada to Asia was expected to increase soon. Since there were no factors causing supply/demand to tighten, some sources reckoned that the market for January delivery might fall to the high $10's. Nevertheless, there were also views that buying interest might emerge from Southeast Asia and South Asia if prices dropped. In the market, Kansai Electric Power Co was reportedly attempting to buy cargoes for April delivery to Japan via a swap tender.

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

In a buy tender for arrival to Egypt that closed on Nov 25, all four cargoes offered in the tender were said to be awarded. One of these cargoes was awarded at a premium of 1ct to Dutch natural gas quotation. Market players said that the tender was issued by state-owned Egyptian General Petroleum Corp. The company in the tender was seeking one cargo for Dec 8-9 arrival to the Energos Winter, the Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) offshore Damietta, and three cargoes for Dec 13-14, Dec 14-15 and Dec 15-16 arrival to the 3.70 mt/year Ain Sokhna terminal. For the cargo for Dec 14-15 arrival, Jordan's 3.80 million mt/year Agaba terminal can receive.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

In the spot market, Turkey's state-owned Botas floated a buy tender that closed on Thursday. It planned to buy a total of four cargoes - two cargoes each for January and February delivery.