--DES Northeast Asia

DES Northeast Asia prices plummeted. Prices for first-half December delivery fell further to $30.50-30.80, down $3.35 from last Friday. Concerns over natural gas supply in Europe was gradually receding and market sentiment weakened. Besides three Chinese state-owned companies, end-users in Korea and Taiwan had refrained from spot purchase these two to three weeks and buying interest was not seen. This was a bearish factor for the market.

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

Supply from the Oman project was not seen after the 138,200cbm conventional tanker "HL Muscat" on long-term charter to Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS) loaded a cargo on Oct 24. No tankers were anchored off the Oman project as of Oct 29 and supply delays were likely to have occurred. Several sources had mentioned that towards the end of October, troubles occurred at production facilities at the Oman project and production was falling.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

State-owned Petrobras raised gas-fired thermal power generation as a substitute for low hydropower generation and continued to purchase LNG. On Oct 25-29 in Brazil, the daily highest temperature was about 20 degrees Celsius and gas demand for use in air-conditioning was not rising. On the other hand, rainfall was expected to increase in the rainy season and reservoir water levels were anticipated to rise. But owing to deforestation, rainfall in Brazil was on a downtrend even in the rainy season and water shortage problems might not be resolved even after January next year.