Japan's LNG buyers paid $8/MMBtu for spot cargoes contracted in December, surging 14.3% from November, data released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed Friday.
The ministry does not disclose delivery months of cargoes contracted.
Platts JKM averaged $8.935/MMBtu in December, which reflects spot deals concluded for January and February deliveries to Japan and South Korea.
The JKM jumped during December as demand increased following an outage at Australian Gorgon LNG facility's Train 1.
On December 1, the Platts JKM for cargoes for delivery in January was assessed at $7.7/MMBtu, while on December 30, the Platts JKM for cargoes for delivery in February was assessed at $9.75/MMBtu. Japan's METI on Friday also published the average price of cargoes delivered into Japan in December, which stood at $6.8/MMBtu, up from $5.9/MMBtu in November.
The Platts JKM for November cargoes averaged at $7.030/MMBtu with the assessment covering the period from October 17 to November 15.
