https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/BP-PLC-9590188/news/Thailand-s-PTT-ships-LNG-to-Japan-for-first-time-amid-winter-squeeze-32366143/

2021 0205

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Thailand's state-owned company PTT shipped a liquefied natural gas (LNG) reload cargo to Japan for the first time as a freezing winter and global supply shortages of the fuel caused spot prices to spike and sent buyers scrambling to find gas.

LNG tanker Symphonic Breeze loaded an LNG cargo from Thailand's Map Ta Phut regasification terminal on Jan. 27 and discharged the cargo at Tokyo Gas' Ohgishima terminal on Feb. 3, data from intelligence firm Kpler showed on Friday.

This was the first LNG reload cargo from the 11.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) Thai terminal, Kpler's LNG analyst Rebecca Chia said.

Japan's electricity prices had hit a record high last month as colder temperatures drove demand for heating, coinciding with increased demand from China and South Korea and production outages in several plants globally.

Spot LNG prices in Asia surged by more than 1,000% as a result, putting a squeeze on buyers who scrambled to find supply.

PTT has long-term LNG purchase contracts with Qatargas, oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and BP and Malaysia's Petronas to import a total of just over 5 mtpa of LNG. It also has a Singapore-based trading unit set up in early 2019.

It was likely leveraging on the price difference between term contracts which are oil-linked and spot prices, making a profit from the wide price gap by re-exporting the cargo, two sources told Reuters.

The shipment from Thailand follows the first re-export LNG cargo out of Indonesia's Arun regasification terminal in mid-January.

"Re-export cargoes from South-East Asia seem to have now emerged as a (viable) emergency response to the gas supply shortage in North Asia," Kpler's Chia said.

(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

By Jessica Jaganathan

? Reuters 2021