Platts JKM for August deliveries ended the trading week at $5.25/MMBtu Friday, up 2.5 cents/MMBtu week on week, with uncertainty over production restarts at Gorgon and Angola limiting trade.
Small losses in the earlier part of the week were driven by lower offers, at around $5.25/MMBtu, as additional availability in the Pacific seemed to more than offset the supply shortfall from Gorgon's outage July 1.
By Friday, however, a temperature-driven spike in northeast Asian power consumption and growing buy competition from the Middle East and the Atlantic drove negotiations higher again.
Friday offers for August delivery were heard around $5.5/MMBtu, meeting bids above $5.1/MMBtu.
There were reports of bids as high as $5.5/MMBtu from traders and portfolio players seeking Pacific-sourced cargoes for deliveries in the second half of August, but there was no sufficient confirmation to substantiate this.
Demand from end users also increased.
In northeast Asia, several Japanese customers were contemplating additional purchases, after hot and cloudy weather boosted downstream power consumption, while limiting output from solar energy resources.
Additional demand also emerged in India, where both GSPC and Petronet launched two separate tenders July 6, and closing July 11, seeking one late-August cargo each.
In the Middle East, Egypt's Egas was expected to issue a tender shortly, seeking four-five cargoes per month over October-December, sources said, although this could not be confirmed.
The buyer is also expected to issue a separate tender seeking 100-120 cargoes for delivery over 2017.
In the Atlantic, Argentina's Enarsa is seeking 10 prompt cargoes, including three to Bahia Blanca -- September 2, September 22 and September 27 -- and seven to Escobar -- August 31, September 4, September 8, September 12, September 17, September 21 and September 26.
The tender was issued July 7 and closes July 12 with validity until July 13.
The September half-month assessments saw stronger gains of 15 cents/MMBtu as strong demand for late August and September provided support.
"[Egypt's tender] could offset excess supply from Gorgon, APLNG, GLNG and Angola," a Singapore based trader said.
However, the supply and demand balance could shift depending on restart and ramp-up operations at Gorgon and Angola.
