LNG prices rise on South Korea purchase and US outage

LONDON (Reuters) -- Asian spot LNG prices rose over the past week, supported by Korea Gas Corp buying up to seven LNG cargoes in its latest tender while an outage at Cheniere Energy's Sabine Pass export plant in the United States squeezed supply.

Spot prices for June delivery, assessed on April 28, rose to $5.80 per MMBtu, up 10 cents on the week.

Korea Gas Corp agreed to purchase between five and seven LNG cargoes as part of its tender for June and July supply, one trader said, with traders estimating the price at between $5.50 and $5.80 per MMBtu.

Prices were also supported by the sale by Russia's Sakhalin II export plant of two cargoes loading across June and July.

Elsewhere, Japan's Tohoku Electric purchased at least one cargo via a tender this week and Thailand's PTT is seeking two cargoes for June delivery, traders said.

The Thai tender closes on May 2 and is valid until May 3. Delivery slots are for June 5–9 and June 19–22.

Notwithstanding the Sabine Pass outage, global supply was generally steady, though Australia's emerging policy to cap LNG exports at times of domestic gas shortages could restrict output from one of the world's biggest producers of the fuel.

Japan's Inpex Corp, meanwhile, delayed start-up of its Ichthys LNG export plant in Australia by several months from its initial target of the third quarter this year.

Angola LNG launched a sell tender for a cargo loading this weekend, sources said.

In Egypt, which is seeking to defer cargoes contracted for delivery this year, only around 10 shipments have been deferred so far out of a potential 20, traders said.

Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic; Additional reporting by Mark Tay in Singaopre; Editing by David Goodman

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