Singapore — Asian spot prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) rose to their highest in more than 11 months this week, underpinned by expectations that an anticipated cold winter will stoke demand for the fuel used in heating.
The average LNG price for December delivery into northeast Asia LNG-AS was estimated at $5.80 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), up 10 cents from the previous week.
The price for November delivery was at around $5.70 per mmBtu, up 20 cents from last week, trade sources said.
Taiwan’s CPC Corp closed a tender earlier this week to buy 12 cargoes for next year, while South Korea’s Posco bought a cargo for delivery in the second half of November, traders said.
Japan’s Kansai Electric and Japex were seeking a cargo each for mid-December delivery while China’s Guangzhou Gas was also seeking a cargo for delivery in late December, they said.
Kuwait Petroleum Corp bought a cargo for mid-November delivery at about $5.70 to $5.90 per mmBtu, one source said.
In Pakistan, Gunvor Singapore s offered the lowest bid for the delivery of one cargo in November at 13.8699% slope of Brent, an official said on Thursday.
Bangladesh is also expected to double its imports of LNG from December on rising demand, two energy officials said.
On the sell side, Royal Dutch Shell said on Thursday its Prelude floating LNG project off Australia, offline since early February, is working on restarting operations but would not resume full production this year.
Australia’s GLNG may have sold a cargo for late November loading at about $5.20 to $5.50 per mmBtu on a free-on-board basis while BHP Billiton likely sold a Nov. 21-23 cargo at about $5.40 to $5.60 per mmBtu, sources said.
Angola LNG had a sell tender this week for a cargo to be delivered to as far as Indonesia, they added.
Egypt’s Idku plant is expected to resume LNG production after a three-month hiatus, Kpler said.
(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; Editing by Aditya Soni)
