--DES Northeast Asia

　 One trader, after attending the international conference Gastech, which was held in Bangkok, Thailand until last Thursday, reported that there were talks of Japan not buying. In addition, Chinese players, believed to have low inventories, have been primarily engaged in reload cargo transactions from their import terminals, and seem to have shown little interest in pure spot procurement. Korean end-users, including Korea Gas Corp (KOGAS), are seen to be also refraining from active spot procurement due to wariness of high prices. Meanwhile, some traders have buy-back demand, and European Trafigura and European Glencore submitted bids for first-half November delivery at a flat to 2cts premium to November DES Northeast Asia spot quotations. QatarEnergy Trading (QET) bid for second-half November delivery at a 2cts premium to the same quotations, and for first-half December delivery at a 3cts premium to the December contract of the quotations.

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

　India's state-owned Baharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) purchased one cargo for Sep to October delivery at $28.80-28.90 in a tender closed on Wednesday. The tender had sought one cargo for arrival on Sep 21, 22, 24, 25, Oct 1, 2, 9, 10 or 11. Meanwhile, Indian state-owned gas firm GAIL also closed a buy tender for one cargo for Sep 25-Oct 20 delivery on Thursday. The details were unknown, but the tender was believed to have been awarded.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

　 For delivery to Europe, a bid on a floating basis for first-half October delivery was placed at a discount of 40cts to the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) natural gas quotations, but no offers were countered. Tradable levels for first-half November delivery were seen at discounts of around 45cts to the TTF quotations for November. As absolute values of the TTF corrected from their recent high, downward pressure on floating prices has eased.