China's privately owned gas distributor ENN has received its first imported LNG cargo late Tuesday, according to a source close to the company and Platts ship-tracking software cFlow.

The vessel Sonangol Benguela delivered 60,000 mt of LNG to the PetroChina-operated Rudong LNG terminal in China's eastern Jiangsu province.

The seller of the cargo could not be immediately confirmed.

The delivery marks the first LNG import by ENN and the first time a Chinese privately owned buyer has received a cargo via third-party access at an existing import terminal.

The LNG will be used primarily to meet demand from the public transport sector in eastern Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and will ease supply tightness during the peak winter demand season.

ENN is developing its first LNG import facility with 3 million mt/year of receiving capacity in the city of Zhoushan in Zhejiang. It is scheduled for completion by 2016.

According to a Singapore-based trader, ENN has secured a total of five cargoes for delivery in the first quarter of 2015, but this could not be confirmed at source.

The first of these cargoes is expected to be delivered by Texas-headquartered Excelerate, which sold the volumes to ENN in the high-$12s/MMBtu in late October, the source said.

Other private companies in China were also heard to be seeking opportunities to use spare import capacity at state-owned LNG import terminals to secure competitive February cargoes in the spot market.

"Several [independent] buyers are trying to have access to spot cargoes," an Asia-based buyer said. "They are talking to brokers to source these cargoes, but there are business uncertainties about [delivery] slot availability," he added.

"A few [buyers] are looking at possible deliveries to PetroChina's Rudong terminal for example. They have come out independently, looking [for deliveries] any time in February," a Singapore-based trader said. "But the problem is whether [sellers] can discharge the cargo."

Offers for February delivery to China's private buyers were heard at $11-12/MMBtu, as sellers seek premiums over terminal delivery risks.

Elsewhere in China, Q1 2015 demand from state-owned buyers is estimated at approximately two or three cargoes, with bids and offers in the wider Asian market heard at either side of the $10/MMBtu mark.