Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices for October delivery fell this week as new cargoes offered by Indonesia and Australia outweighed supply problems at Nigeria's Bonny export terminal.
The price of Asian spot cargoes fell to around $7.60 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) on Friday, down from around $7.90 per mmBtu last week.
Traders described Asian markets as subdued with little deal-making taking place while new supplies put a lid on prices.
Indonesia's Bontang export plant offered to sell 1 cargo in October and 3 in December.
Australia's Gladstone plant coming on stream next month sought to sell five commissioning cargoes in October-December.
However, supply at Nigeria's LNG export plant tightened after Shell warned of constrained feedgas entering the facility due to the shutdown of a major oil pipeline a day earlier.
Nigeria LNG had just lifted one force majeure a week earlier after repairing a pipeline. That disruption to gas supplies had only a negligible impact on LNG exports, delaying cargo loadings by three to four days.
Trinidad is also seeking to offload a cargo loading in the second-half of September.
On the demand side, Pakistan launched a tender to buy one cargo for delivery on Dec. 25-27.
Argentina purchased one cargo from Statoil for delivery in October, traders said, after launching a tender to buy three cargoes several weeks ago.
Israel has closed a tender for the purchase of a LNG cargo, although the outcome could not be confirmed.
Gas giant Qatar has agreed with PetroChina to skew deliveries under an existing long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply deal towards the peak demand winter period, a shift likely to weigh on global spot prices.
The deal only extends to this winter, one of the sources said, but could be renewed when PetroChina and Qatar discuss their delivery programme for 2016 later this year.
With PetroChina's winter gas demand now largely filled through Qatari diversions, global LNG markets should see less Chinese buying on spot markets this winter, putting pressure on prices, a trader said.
Atlantic LNG spot prices were trading in the mid-$7/mmBtu range, according to one trader, who suggested that a transaction had taken place around similar levels.
Re-exports from European LNG import terminals are expected to intensify given the wide spread between domestic gas hub prices, currently trading around $6.10/mmBtu and Asian markets.
