--DES Northeast Asia

In the DES Northeast Asia market last week, front month delivery hovered around $8.85-9.15 once. Affordable price levels stimulated demand. Weak supply from the 15.00 mil mt/year US Freeport project and the 30.00 mil mt/year Sabine Pass project played a part in creating a bullish sentiment as well.

Tohoku Electric Power Co procured a cargo for April delivery to the 8.50 mil mt/year Niigata terminal through a tender that closed on Mar 5 at $9.00 or the low $9's. An increase in gas demand derived from the troubles of hydropower plants in their marketing area allegedly made them procure the cargo. Meanwhile, Beijing Gas in China appeared to buy six to seven cargoes based on the DES Northeast Asia spot quotations via a tender that closed on Mar 5 on a DES basis. Through the tender, Beijing Gas planned to buy seven cargoes in total for delivery from May to November, or a total of six cargoes: one cargo delivery per month from May to September and one from October to December. Other players appeared to consider spot procurements. An end-user in China said, "The recent spot market has been cheaper than long-term contracts, so it is the right time to buy now for end-users. Moreover, LNG domestic prices by trucks have hovered around $11.00, offering an arbitrage opportunity if we sell imported cargoes to the domestic market."

However, in China's National People's Congress last week, China set a GDP growth target of around 5%. "We cannot deny the slowdown of economic growth, implying brisk gas demand growth unlikely to come from industrial sectors" (a Japanese company).

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

In South Asia, more cargoes loading from North America and the Middle East tend to come because the distance to India from the loading regions is much closer than that to Northeast Asia, with the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal being less accessible. Following a month earlier, European Vitol issued a tender to sell a total of five cargoes for Apr to Aug delivery to the 17.50 mil mt/year Dahej terminal in India. In the Middle East, no firm bids were reported.

--FOB Atlantic, DES Europe and South America

In the US, as for recovering a liquification train from an outage at the 15.00 mil mt/year US Freeport project, skeptical views of whether it can resume operation in mid-March have emerged among some players. Moreover, a decrease in production was heard at the 30.00 mil mt/year US Sabine Pass project. In Colombia, South America, LNG has been imported into the 3.70 mil mt/year Cartagena terminal with a pace of around four cargoes per month since the beginning of the year, but "The majority of cargoes were partial ones bought from British BP" (a Japanese trading house).