--DES Northeast Asia

　 The DES Northeast Asia market soared on the back of reduced Middle Eastern LNG supply and prompt delivery prices reached its highest level since Mar 31. With ongoing hostilities between the US and Iran, there is still no clear timeline for the normalization of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Hence, supply disruptions for LNG from Qatar as well as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are expected to be prolonged. As there are some traders and portfolio players offering cargoes into the Northeast Asian market, spot supply is not necessarily tight but concerns over a tightening supply/demand balance have resurfaced as the Northern Hemisphere enters the peak summer demand season. Under this situation, in the DES-based sales tender conducted by Australia's Santos, which closed on Jul 16, one cargo from the 3.7 mil mt/year Darwin project scheduled for delivery to Northeast Asia on Sep 4-5 was awarded at a premium of 14-16cts over DES Northeast Asia spot quotations for September. Traders pointed out that the factors contributing to the high-priced deal included the fact that the September and October spot market prices for Northeast Asia delivery were trading at a deep backwardation of 50-60cts in the futures market, and that--unlike typical negotiations among traders--the cargo origin was limited to the Darwin project from the outset. As of Jul 17, first-half July delivery prices are assessed at about $20.05/mmBtu.

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

　 State-owned Indian Baharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) was in the middle of conducting a buy tender for one cargo for Jul 30-Aug 15 arrival to the 11.40 mil mt/year Dahej terminal. In addition, state-owned Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) appeared to have closed a buy tender for one cargo for Aug 13-20 delivery on Thursday.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

　 According to market sources, the first export cargo shipped on Apr 22 from the 18.1 mil mt/year US Golden Pass project was unloaded at the Piombino FSRU terminal operated by Snam in Italy. The terminal has a storage capacity of 170,000 cubic meters of LNG and boasts an annual regasification capacity of 5 billion cubic meters.