LNG cargo contracts likely to be awarded next week

Pakistan LNG Limited is likely to award the LNG cargoes contracts next week for supply in March to three lowest bidders. According to commercial evaluation report released by Pakistan LNG Limited, trading companies Vitol, Trafigura and BB Energy submitted the lowest bids in a tender to supply Pakistan with four liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes in March.
The commodity traders quoted lower prices of LNG as compared with cargoes for February. State-run Pakistan LNG closed bidding on December 26, 2017 with four delivery windows across January. Five companies took part in the tender including Gunvor, Vitol, Trafigura, BB Energy and DufEnergy, stated Pakistan LNG''s commercial evaluation report.
Vitol submitted the most competitive bid for the March 8-9 delivery window at 15.9147 percent of Brent. The Swiss-based trader also had the best bid for the March 22-23 window at 13.8301 percent of Brent, according to the document.
For the March 17-18 delivery window, Trafigura placed the best bid at 15.0591 percent of Brent while for the March 27-28 slot BB Energy had the lowest bid of 13.2701 percent of Brent.
The cargoes will be delivered on a DES basis to the recently opened Pakistan GasPort''s FSRU-based LNG import terminal at Port Qasim or such other LNG terminal within Pakistan, Pakistan LNG has previously said.
Earlier, same companies technically qualified for supply of four cargoes in February 2018 at higher rate as compared to the LNG cargoes in March 2018.
BB Energy submitted the most competitive bid for the February 6-7 delivery window at 15.731 percent of Brent. Gunvor trader had the best bid for the February 16-17 window at 16.0857 percent of Brent. For the February 21-22 delivery window, Trafigura placed the best bid at 15.8488 percent of Brent while for the February 26-27 slot Trafigura again had the lowest bid of 14.9887 percent of Brent.
Short-Term Energy Outlook by the US Energy Information Administration reveals that crude oil prices will average $57/b in 2018. Commodities traders also predict the price of oil in their futures contracts. They predict the price could be anywhere from $48/b to $68/b by March 2018.