* Chinese demand emerges as defining winter price signal
* Qatar's Rasgas Train 7 in maintenance
* Qatari winter deals touted with S.Korea, China
* Excelerate Energy in talks to supply Israel
By Oleg Vukmanovic and Rebekah Kebede
LONDON/PERTH, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Asian liquefied natural gas(LNG) prices rose this week on winter buying across the regionand maintenance on one production line in Qatar, which someindustry sources say has little spare capacity left until theend of winter.
Prices rose to $17.75 per million British thermal units(mmBtu) compared with around $17.50/mmBtu last week.
Chinese gas demand is emerging as one of the defininginfluences on winter LNG prices as state-backed buyers try toavert a looming winter supply crunch.
PetroChina launched a tender for the delivery of fourcargoes last month, which it may have awarded to its termsuppliers, such as the world's biggest producer, Qatar, sourcessaid at the time.
Higher gas needs may also accelerate the commissioning ofnew import terminals in China, such as the floating terminal atTianjin owned by China National Offshore Oil Corp., as well asSinopec's facility in Shandong.
A number of sources said they believed that Qatar may havearranged for additional deliveries to China this winter,although details were scarce, while others pointed to a similardeal with South Korea.
"We hear that Qatar will ship additional cargoes to Korea[this winter]," said an industry source.
Qatar's Rasgas is to deliver the cargoes to South Korea eventhough the actual volumes will be sourced from sister companyQatargas, he said, suggesting that Rasgas temporarily lacks thespare capacity to make up for additional shipments.
One of the LNG production plants at Rasgas, Train 7, hasshut for maintenance for most of November, a source at QatarPetroleum said earlier this week.
A shutdown in November comes as winter heating demand inleading importers Japan, Korea and others is usually starting torise, but as the work was planned it should not impact Rasgas'ability to meet its supply commitments.
South Korean power demand jumped after authorities closednuclear reactors in response to an extended investigation offorged safety certificates, boosting demand for fossil fuelssuch as LNG.
Asian buyers with long-term supplies are increasinglyleaning on these volumes, avoiding where possible high prices onspot markets.
In Europe, Excelerate Energy is in talks with IsraelElectric Company (IEC) to deliver a strip of LNG cargoesfollowing a tender for five shipments earlier this year.
The exact number of cargoes under discussion betweenExcelerate and Israel's state power utility could not beconfirmed, however.
BP first won the contract to supply around 10 cargoes to IEClast year, some of which were diverted to Asia under aprofit-sharing agreement, and Swiss-trader Vitol held thecontract subsequently.
Outside the spot market, Taiwan's energy company CPC is saidto have purchased 0.80 million tonnes/year (mtpa) of LNG fromGDF Suez priced entirely against the benchmark U.S. Henry Hub.
CPC declined to comment when contacted earlier this morning.
Argentina's tender for additional LNG supplies next year isto close on Nov. 13 and an award is due to be made on Nov. 15,according to the tender document.
Details of the latest deals clinched between Russia'sNovatek -operated Yamal LNG project and Chinese andSpanish buyers have begun to filter into the market.
Yamal last month sold 3 mtpa to Chinese buyer CNPC at anestimated slope of 12.2 percent plus a high fixed premium.
While last week, the Arctic project gave Spain's Gas NaturalFenosa dual-pricing for its 2.5 mtpa, linking supply to pricesat the UK's NBP gas hub and Brent crude oil at a 12 percentslope, an industry source said.
Some traders said that the pricing estimate on the Spanishsale could be too high, given that the buyer would incuradditional charges from transferring the LNG from the slowerice-capable vessels onto standard vessels.
It was also unclear if Gas Natural Fenosa would takedelivery of the volumes in Spain, or whether it intends toperform ship-to-ship transfers off the coast of Norway.
