2010/10/27

(BN) Morgan Stanley Hires Mitsui’s Jia as First LNG Trader

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Morgan Stanley Hires Mitsui's Jia as First LNG Trader in Asia
2010-10-27 01:34:29.994 GMT


By Dinakar Sethuraman
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley said it hired Maggie
Jia from Mitsui & Co. as the U.S. bank's first liquefied
natural gas trader in Singapore.
Jia, who has six years' experience in LNG, joined in
September and will be the New York-based bank's "first
dedicated LNG trader in Asia," Sebastian Howell, a Morgan
Stanley spokesman in London, said yesterday. She will report
to Luis Lesmes in London, head of LNG, Howell said.
Morgan Stanley joins rivals such as Citigroup Inc. in
setting up a LNG trading desk in Asia to capture increasing
trade in the cleaner-burning fuel from China and India, as well
as Japan and South Korea, the world's biggest LNG importers.
"It makes perfect sense to move people from Europe to Asia
and we can only see this continuing," said Tim Spragg, a
recruiter at Commodity Appointments Ltd. in Singapore. Trading
in LNG will increase as "the biggest liquefaction markets,
including Qatar, Indonesia, and Australia, and also two of the
largest regasification markets in Japan and South Korea" are in
Asia, he said.
Spot and short-term imports, which include contracts of as
long as four years, were equivalent to about 30 million metric
tons, or about 17 percent of global LNG trade last year,
according to data based on BP Plc's annual energy review and a
report by the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas
Importers.

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--Editors: Clyde Russell, Amit Prakash.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Dinakar Sethuraman in Singapore at +65-6212-1590 or
dinakar@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Clyde Russell at +65-6311-2423 or crussell7@bloomberg.net