Summer heat in North Asia continues to drive demand for spot LNG cargoes and narrow the spread between natural gas prices in the region and those in Europe.
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The Title Transfer Facility (TTF) has kept pace with Asian buying. The prompt contract jumped 5% last week, keeping it within a range of $1.00 or less to the Japan-Korea Marker (JKM), which has held steady around $13/MMBtu.
“For U.S. exporters, most LNG cargoes continue to flow toward the Atlantic Basin, though Asia may become an option if prices in the Asia-Pacific rise higher than that of European LNG delivery prices,” said Rystad Energy analyst Masanori Odaka.