Spot liquefied natural gas prices for Northeast Asian delivery jumped to their highest level since last winter, as an early-season heatwave across Japan and South Korea drove a surge in power-plant demand for cooling.

Platts assessed the JKM benchmark climbing past $14 per million British thermal units, with utilities restocking inventories ahead of what forecasters expect to be a hotter-than-normal summer.

The price jump has drawn additional cargoes away from Europe, where storage levels remain comfortably above the five-year average, narrowing the usual seasonal discount between the two markets.

Traders say further gains will hinge on Australian and Qatari export reliability, with any unplanned outage likely to send prices sharply higher given thin spare capacity.