LONDON (Reuters) – Liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices in Asia held largely steady this week, taking a breather after recovering from a significant dip in March.<\/p>\n
LNG for delivery in northeast Asia in June is estimated at $5.60 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), the same level as last week.<\/p>\n
The July price is seen at a slight contango – a market structure in which prompt prices are below later-dated prices – and is estimated at $5.65 mmBtu.<\/p>\n
Demand kept coming from trading and portfolio companies who are optimizing their positions in the Far East. Deals for June cargoes were done between $5.50-5.60 in the Platts market on close (MOC) window this week.<\/p>\n
Several companies are in talks to optimize their July positions as well, an LNG trader said.<\/p>\n
One is the trading arm of Russian producer Novatek, which is looking to buy a cargo in the Pacific basin to cover a July delivery position in Asia, two market sources said.<\/p>\n
A lack of end-user demand kept prices from rising however, with some buyers offering to sell cargoes. China\u2019s PetroChina was offering a cargo in the Platts MOC window for late June delivery.<\/p>\n
A spot cargo offered from Malaysia\u2019s Bintulu for early June loading likely didn\u2019t find a buyer, a shipping market source said.<\/p>\n
In Europe, Spain\u2019s delivery prices are increasing on the back of higher gas demand in the country, two trade sources said.<\/p>\n
Offers rose to above the level of the Dutch gas hub benchmark price as sellers see Spain having to compete for cargoes with other markets, one of the sources said.<\/p>\n
There were several spot cargo offers in Europe. Novatek is selling a late May delivery cargo to northwest Europe from the Yamal plant, two sources said.<\/p>\n
PetroChina, another offtaker from Yamal, has offered three cargoes for June delivery to Europe, one industry source said.<\/p>\n
Front-month gas prices in the Netherlands and Britain fell by around 20 cents to around $4.63 and $4.24 per mmBtu respectively.<\/p>\n
There were two diversions of cargoes from Europe to Mexico in the past week, indicating more attractive prices in the recent tenders of Mexican utility CFE compared to Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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