Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) offtakers that have contracts with Malaysia’s state-owned Petroliam Nasional Berhad, aka Petronas, are looking to cover peak winter demand after cargoes were canceled and deferred from the Bintulu LNG complex in Sarawak.  

With a colder-than-normal winter predicted for Asia, plus recent unplanned outages at  Australia’s Gorgon LNG and the Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) vessel, Japanese and Korean buyers are back in the market to seek replacement cargoes. 

Contract holders from the 30 million metric tons/year (mmty) Bintulu complex were first warned in August about potential cargo cancellations or deferrals after the discovery of high mercury levels contaminating the Pegaga natural gas field offshore Sarawak. 

The Mubadala...