The Platts December LNG Japan Korea Marker ended Friday up 15 cents to $13.70/MMBtu, on the back of tight supply in the prompt despite limited residual demand.
The December JKM started the Asian trading week at $13.55/MMBtu. Despite fairly muted trading for the period, limited availability of December supplies kept a floor on spot prices, with sources noting a shift from an oversupplied market to a fairly balanced one.
"The December book is almost closed for every supplier," a Tokyo-based trader said.
Production issues at Yemen LNG and Nigeria LNG, together with maintenance at Indonesia's Tangguh LNG, also had a tightening effect on the supply fundamentals.
Market participants were awaiting the results of Thailand PTT's limited buy tender for one December and one January cargo which closed earlier this week.
Utilities in Japan, South Korea and China were looking for December cargoes, a Singapore-based source said.
"They are checking out the market, but it's probably not firm demand." China could be prompted to enter the spot market for December shipments due to the cold snap in the country.
Meanwhile, South Korea shut down two nuclear reactors at the Yeonggwang nuclear plant Monday for at least two months of unscheduled maintenance to replace parts supplied with forged quality certificates.
The news did not elicit a strong response from the market given that the country has already been looking for winter cargoes and South Korean buyers were still relatively quiet in the spot market.
A European source added that South Korean importers "were near tanktop anyway," hence cushioning the impact of the nuclear outage.
Although no immediate reaction was observed, most market participants were monitoring the situation as the strain on the national power grid could prompt Korean buyers to seek additional spot LNG cargoes given that the country was entering the peak winter demand season.
This is especially so after South Korea's nuclear watchdog -- the Nuclear Safety and Security Commission -- Wednesday said it has expanded its probe over fake safety certificates to cover all the country's 23 nuclear reactors.
Spot interest continued to be more focused on January, instead of December, with stronger market sentiment lifting first- and second-half January assessments to $14.25/MMBtu and $14.35/MMBtu Friday, up from Monday's $14.10/MMBtu and $14.25/MMBtu.
Potential January demand from Japanese buyers could be in the range of five to six cargoes, various sources said.
However, with Annual Delivery Program discussions still in progress, the buy/sell gap showed little signs of closing in.
A source from the North Asian utility said: "I don't see that much spot demand for January and there aren't many transactions. It's a different picture from last year...Most buyers have secured enough volumes through long-term contracts."
Platts DES West India posted a 65-cents/MMBtu gain over the course of the week to settle at $11.90/MMBtu Friday on the back of healthy demand from the region amid limited supplies. India's GAIL, Petronet LNG and GSPC were heard to be interested in procuring December shipments.
"We wanted one to two cargoes for December, but we are not receiving any offers," a South Asian importer said, adding that "it is very difficult to pay $12/MMBtu... it's on the very high side."
A producer in Asia pointed out that there were not many cargoes left in the market to cater to India's demand and added that December offers into India were above $12/MMBtu.
The Asia Pacific Day Rate remained unchanged at $110,000/day this week due to lack of recent fixtures, mirroring the slow cargo market.
"There are many vessels available in the market ... Portfolio players have ships both in the East and West, however, they are not eager to fix the vessels," a ship broker said.
