--DES Northeast Asia

In Northeast Asia, supply-demand fundamentals were believed to have tightened up slightly in the frigid winter period. Under the circumstances, a couple of Japanese end-users had requirements for prompt delivery and one of them could have already secured one cargo for February delivery. But an industry source said, "A possibility cannot be ruled out that the cargo was bought on a DES Europe basis instead of DES Japan basis." JERA is likely to be purchasing one incremental cargo each month starting December as the Strategic Buffer LNG (SBL) portion. But an industry source noted JERA could have resold the SBL portion domestically in Japan for the lack of additional real demand. Term contract cargoes are sufficient to meet demand for pre-summer stock replenishment, so that few players are considering procurement for April-May delivery.

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

Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co (EGAS) purchased a combined two cargoes for delivery to Egypt during Feb 12-13 and Feb 17-18 in a tender closed on Jan 28.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

State-run Angola LNG issued a sell tender on a DES basis. In the tender, the producer offered one cargo out of the 5.2 mil mt/year Angola project for delivery during Feb 11-Mar 5. Southeast Asia was designated as the easternmost destination.