Asian spot LNG prices rose to a four-month high last week mainly on the back of supply problems.
For example, there was an extended shutdown of a train at Australia’s Gorgon plant following maintenance, due to damage found during an inspection.
Sakhalin’s production level was also slower. However, the giant Russian Far East plant has recently increased production again, which suggested that a maintenance period had ended.
The average LNG price for September delivery into northeast Asia LNG-AS was estimated at around $2.70 MMBtu, $0.25 higher than the previous week’s level.
However, this price level was still seasonally weaker than in previous years and around 36% below the level seen a year ago.
Gorgon’s Train 2 maintenance period began on 23rd May. A restart was initially planned for 11th July but has now been delayed until early September.
A routine inspection of the train’s propane heat exchangers during the planned maintenance found weld quality issues, Chevron said last week.
Gorgon Trains 1 and 3 are operating normally and there were reportedly offers of spot cargoes from other Asia/Pacific plants last week.
One came from Santos, with Australian energy firm offering one August and one September cargoes from its Darwin export plant.
Demand continued to be slow, but some buying took place last week, newswires reported.
In Japan, for example, Hokkaido Electric bought a cargo for September delivery at around $2.70 per MMBtu, while Pakistan LNG said it had secured a record low price for an LNG cargo, with SOCAR Trading offering a price of about $2.20 per MMBtu in a spot buy tender for a late August cargo.
Elsewhere, Chilean consortium, GNL Chile is seeking to buy five cargoes for delivery in 2021.
