OREANDA-NEWS. September 30, 2011. China's CNOOC, the country's largest LNG player, has little appetite for spot imports of liquefied natural gas for this winter, as a jump in Japanese demand following the March tsunami has tightened near-term supply and led to a surge in freight costs, a company official said.

"It's not good time to buy," the official said on the sidelines of the annual China-U.S. energy forum. "We don't really see a shortage either from the CNOOC side as we're well-covered by term supplies, although we do occasionally import on behalf of (PetroChina Co Ltd parent) China National Petroleum Corp when there is an emergency need to cover a pipeline gas shortage."

Spot LNG prices for delivery to North Asia have climbed to USD 16-17 per million British thermal units, while shipping costs have shot up to about a USD 110,000 daily chartering rate, more than double the rate before the devastating earthquake in March that nearly paralysed the Japanese nuclear power sector.

CNOOC, which imported 9.34 million tonnes of LNG last year, bought roughly 10 percent of its LNG imports from the spot market, the official said.

China imported 1.05 million tonnes of the super-chilled gas in August, off a record 1.18 million tonnes in July, with prices averaging about USD 9.50 per mmBtu in August, the highest this year, according to customs figures.