--DES Northeast Asia

Real demand from Northeast Asia was anemic. An analyst in Japan said, "Many end-users in Asia are left with thin room for spot purchases as they have sufficient inventories. A cold wave is gripping Northeast Asia, but it is within expectations and any impact on supply-demand fundamentals is limited." In Tokyo, the peak power demand reached 40.68GW on Dec 4, topping the 40GW mark for the first time since late September. But power reserve rates were kept as high as 17% with no tightness witnessed in power supply-demand fundamentals. On top of that, offers were seen from the Middle East and the US, potentially offsetting a moderate increase in demand.

--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

Turkey's energy and natural resources minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced on Dec 3 that the country will extend imports of Russian gas for one year after the existing contract expires at the end of December this year. The policy contradicts with a decision by the European Union (EU) to cut off imports from Russia, but Turkey is believed to seek approval from US Trump administration by considering an investment in the US. Meanwhile, Turkey's state-owned Botas wrapped up a 10-year long-term contract starting 2028 with German state-run SEFE and Italian ENI, respectively, as reported. The contract volume is equivalent to a combined 6 billion cubic meters (cbm) of natural gas for SEFE and 5 billion cbm for ENI. On a yearly basis, the volume translates into 400,000mt for SEFE and 350,000mt for ENI.