China National Offshore Oil Company, or CNOOC, is selling liquefied natural gas cargoes for delivery from May through November in a tender closing on Friday, traders said.

CNOOC, China’s largest LNG importer, offered an unspecified number of cargoes on delivered ex-ship basis.

“It’s a totally logical move to sell in the market when JKM prices are much higher than domestic Chinese prices,” said a Beijing-based trader with knowledge of the tenders, referring to Asian benchmark Japan Korea Marker.

China’s Sinopec Corp 0386.HK also has a tender closing on Friday, selling up to 45 cargoes for February-October delivery.

China, the world’s largest LNG buyer, last brought in 7.63 million tonnes of the super-chilled fuel in December, up only 1.6% from a year earlier as stubbornly high spot prices hurt purchases while the domestic market was amply supplied with peak local production and record imports of piped gas.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Chen Aizhu Editing by David Goodman)