LONDON, Aug 9 Reuters Asian spot liquefied natural gas LNG prices remained at their highest level in over seven months, tracking European gains amid concerns over supply disruption.

The average LNG price for September delivery into northeast Asia was at 12.90 per million British thermal units mmBtu, industry sources estimated. This is the highest level since midDecember and up from 12.80mmBtu last week.

Asian prices rise this week has largely been underpinned by the European gains, with northeast Asian LNG demand remaining tepid despite hot weather in much of the region, particularly South Korea which is also facing a few unplanned nuclear outages, said Samuel Good, head of LNG pricing at commodity pricing agency Argus.

Aboveaverage temperatures are forecast in South Korea, Japan, as well as Chinas Beijing and Shanghai in the coming week, which could support strong cooling demand. However, southeast China where much of gasfired generation capacity is situated could return to normal temperatures in the coming weeks, leaving little scope for a late summer jump in power demand, Good Said.

Gas demand remains high enough in Asia to attract cargoes, said Klaas Dozeman, market analyst at Brainchild Commodity Intelligence, adding that current price levels might withhold price sensitive buyers from the spot market.

Dozeman said that the latest La Nina weather pattern forecast has weakened, which might help to decrease next winter39;s gas demand in Asia and North America…