LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) – Asian spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices rose this week on already tight supply and production outages in Australia and was further buoyed by climbing crude oil prices.
Spot prices LNG-AS for December delivery rose to $9.45 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), 30 cents above last week’s levels.
Australia’s North West Shelf export facility suffered a partial outage on Friday morning after several production units were taken offline, though at least one is in the process of restarting, sources said.
One trade source said three of five production units, or trains, may have been affected, but immediate confirmation was not possible.
The plant can produce 16.3 million tonnes of LNG a year but the duration of the shutdown remains uncertain, making it difficult to gauge its impact on prices.
Egypt’s latest 12-cargo LNG buy tender drew some relatively high oil-indexed bids for January and February.
Spain’s Gas Natural Fenosa (GNF) won five cargoes after submitting highly competitive bids relative to Trafigura, Vitol and Glencore – which also scored shipments, traders said.
GNF submitted a bid, expressed as a percentage of Brent, of around 13 percent for March shipments at a time when Brent was trading at $59 a barrel, a trader said.
Brent is currently trading at $64.10 a barrel.
Mexico’s state-run power utility CFE also sought via tender cargoes at the end of November and the end of December, trade sources said.
Russia’s new Yamal LNG export plant is due to begin loading its first cargo in November, according to a presentation by shipping company Teekay.