SINGAPORE, April 12 (Reuters) - Asian spot liquefied

natural gas (LNG) prices edged up this week, reaching the

highest levels in three months, as they remained supported by

steady demand and supply disruption concerns.

The average LNG price for May delivery into northeast Asia

rose to $9.80 per million British thermal units

(mmBtu), its highest since Jan. 12, industry sources estimated.

The average price for June delivery was estimated at

$10/mmBtu.

Prices had edged higher amid heating demand in Europe, while

production disruption at the Freeport LNG terminal in the U.S.

also supported prices, said Samuel Good, head of LNG pricing at

commodity pricing agency Argus.

While daily maximum temperature forecasts for northeast Asia

are likely still too low to incentivise substantial power

cooling demand in April and most of May, much of southeast Asia

is set to continue experiencing hot weather, he added.

"(This is) especially in Thailand where daily maximum

temperatures are set to be around 35 degrees Celsius for the

next few weeks."

The increase in Asian LNG prices is prompting suppliers with

U.S.-origin LNG to consider a shift from Europe, added Masanori

Odaka, a senior analyst at consultancy Rystad Energy.

"Arbitrage for US-origin LNG to Asia has been open since the

first week of April 2024, meaning that suppliers of US-origin

LNG will likely try to market their volume into Asia rather than

Europe," he said.

In Europe, S&P Global Commodity Insights assessed its daily

North West Europe LNG Marker (NWM) price benchmark for cargoes

delivered in May on an ex-ship (DES) basis at $9.044/mmBtu on

April 11, a $0.19/mmBtu discount to the May gas price at the

Dutch TTF hub, and its highest since Jan. 12.

Argus assessed the May delivery price at $9/mmBtu, while

Spark Commodities assessed May delivery at $8.992/mmBtu.

This comes after Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy assets

this week, as well as Freeport LNG's outage which led to near

zero gas flows on Thursday.

In late March, U.S. LNG company Freeport LNG said it

expected two of the three liquefaction trains at the plant -

Trains 1 and 2 - to remain shut until May for inspections and

repairs, while Train 3 was operating.

Train 3 however experienced a trip late on April 9 that

lasted into April 10, an emissions report filed to regulators

showed.

Additionally, LNG imports to Italy are projected to remain

relatively supported as operations resume at Rovigo and Piombino

terminals after maintenance, while deeper gas maintenance in

Norway over the next two weeks could potentially tighten EU gas

supply and stimulate LNG demand, said Ana Subasic, natural gas

and LNG analyst at data and analytics firm Kpler.

Meanwhile, on spot LNG freight, both the Atlantic and

Pacific rates both fell for a third consecutive week, said Spark

Commodities analyst Qasim Afghan.

The Atlantic spot rate fell to $43,750/day on Friday, while

the Pacific spot rate eased to $46,750/day.