--DES Northeast Asia

DES Northeast Asia prices surged $9.85 from last Friday to $36.70-37.00 for second-half November delivery, reaching a record high with European natural gas prices such as the Netherlands' TTF had been rising. For delivery to Northeast Asia, some portfolio players including European trader Trafigura and Chinese independent companies moved on spot purchase while Japanese and Korean end-users felt that prices were relatively and refrained from spot purchase. Therefore, buying interest was not that strong. Nevertheless, as production problems at the 28.00 mil mt/year Bintulu project operated by Malaysian state-owned Petronas were not resolved, supply/demand on a DES Northeast Asia basis remained tight and the market was unlikely to soften ahead of the winter season. The Chinese government requested state-owned companies on Thursday to secure fuels for winter. This also contributed to the gain.

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

Pakistan LNG (PLL) would be closing a buy tender on Oct 11 for cargoes to be delivered on Dec 6-7, 10-11, 15-16, 26-27, and Jan 14-15, 19-20, 24-25, 29-30. The Pakistan government was scheduled to announce its plan to buy alternative fuels soon since LNG prices continued to surge. Market participants were paying attention to Pakistan.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

Argentina's state-owned IEASA issued a buy tender closing Oct 5 for a total of four small cargoes to be delivered during October to December to the 6.10 mil mt/year Escobar terminal. The delivery dates were Oct 12-17, Oct 30-Nov 1, Nov 20-25 and Dec 15-20. In IEASA's previous buy tender which closed on Jul 6, the company was looking for four partial cargoes for delivery Aug 19, Aug 25, Sep 4 and Sep 18.