Platts January JKM ended the week at $7.175/MMBtu, down 30/MMBtu from 7.475/MMBtu last Friday.
With most of January demand covered, sellers had lowered their January offers below $7.50/MMBtu and started showing February cargoes below January offers.
Indian buyers were still showing some interest for January, but this was largely opportunistic, with bids heard in the mid- to high-$6s/MMBtu.
On the supply side, the market saw additional supply emerge from Indonesia's Bontang, which closed a tender Tuesday offering at least two cargoes a month on a either a FOB or DES basis for delivery in 2016.
Up to 30 cargoes could be available from the plant for 2016, while a number of extra cargoes could also become available for 2017 loading, some sources said.
Japan's Chubu Electric, Kansai Electric, Kyushu Electric, Osaka Gas, Toho Gas and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. have contracts to buy a total 3 million mt of LNG from Bontang between 2011 and 2015 and 2 million between 2016 and 2020.
In Australia, additional volumes from North West Shelf were being shown by some of its equity holders including BHP Billiton, which was marketing one cargo for delivery in Q3 2016 and one for delivery in Q1 2017, one trader said.
The seller offered those volumes in mid-November, but the deadline for the submission of bids could not be confirmed.
Sources said Darwin LNG would likely award its recent tender offering a single late December-loading at the FOB equivalent of the high $6s/MMBtu, but no award have been confirmed.
Elsewhere, US-based Chevron was heard to be offering January and February cargoes from the Gorgon LNG project on Barrow Island, Western Australia, to its long-term customers.
The operator was also heard to have secured a cool-down cargo for delivery to the new project in the third week of December.
In the US, Cheniere was heard to have sold its first cargo from Sabine Pass, due to be loaded by year-end, to a portfolio seller for January delivery to South America, but this could not be confirmed.
Most demand was coming from South Asia and the Middle East, including two mid-term buy tenders from Pakistan's PSO seeking a total of 120 cargoes over five years.
In India, IOC is seeking three cargoes for delivery to the Dahej terminal over Q1 2016, through a tender closing December 2.
Dubai's DUSUP was heard to be in negotiations to buy four to six cargoes/year for both 2016 and 2017.
The buyer was recently heard awarding a tender seeking four to six cargoes for delivery over February 2016 to January 2017 at a 11.5-11.9% linkage to Brent.
In North Asia, South Korean private buyer Komipo was in the process of awarding a tender seeking a partial cargo for delivery over December 28-31 to Gwangyang terminal.
There was confirmation of an offer submitted into the tender in the mid-$8s/MMBtu for the delivery of a cargo sourced from Australia.
