LNG Prices Dip as Traders Await Tender Outcomes

Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices edged lower this week as bid-offer ranges stayed wide and traders submitted responses for Mexico's six-cargo buy tender.

 

The price of Asian spot cargoes for January delivery fell to around $7.20 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), from around $7.30/mmBtu last week.

 

Pakistan State Oil's tender to buy 120 cargoes over the next five years is attracting heavy interest from suppliers despite the country's complex requirements and higher credit risk, traders said.

 

Two sources said Pakistan is continuing to negotiate with Qatar for a 10-year LNG supply agreement for 1.5 million tonnes/year.

 

The bid-offer spread is wide at around $6.80-$7.50 per mmBtu, another source said.

 

Jordan's National Electric Power Co (NEPCO) expects to source around 20 percent of its gas needs from the spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) market in 2016/17, an executive from the company said on Thursday.

 

NEPCO expects to launch a tender imminently to buy one or two cargoes per month for delivery in the first quarter.

 

Shell is scheduled to pick up a cargo from Trinidad's LNG export plant, which was offered in a tender last month, a source said.

 

Indonesia's Bontang export plant is offering to sell a string of 30 cargoes through 2016 and has identified potential winners, including big international oil majors, but pending government approvals mean no decision has been made, sources said.

 

A source said two companies had won the Bontang tender.

 

China's Sinopec has been given rare approval by its partners in the Australia Pacific LNG project to sell on some of the cargoes it doesn't need for itself, but only if they are sold within China or outside Asia and are sold on an oil-link.

 

Kuwait liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports are on track to rise around 17 percent to 3 million tonnes in 2015, boosted by the fuel's increased competitiveness with gas oil, an executive from Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) said on Friday.


(By Oleg Vukmanovic and Sarah McFarlane;  Editing by David Holmes)