Pacific spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) freight rates continued to increase this week, while European prices decreased compared to the week before.
Last week, Pacific rates experienced a $10,500 increase and Atlantic rates decreased.
“Spark30s Atlantic rates continued to decrease for the third consecutive week, falling by $4,250 to $75,000 per day and reducing by $14,500 since the reported Freeport LNG outages on July 7th,” Qasim Afghan, Spark’s commercial analyst told LNG Prime on Friday.
In comparison, Spark25S Pacific rates experienced a fifth consecutive weekly increase, rising by $5,500 to $72,750 per day, he said.
“As a result, the Atlantic-Pacific basin spread has reduced from a Summer record high of $37,250 down to $2,250, as Spark25S Pacific rates experience an expected seasonal rally whilst Spark30S Atlantic rates continue to stall,” Afghan said.
European prices
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG front month was down compared to the prior week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front month price for August delivery is assessed at $9.980/MMBtu and at a $0.13/MMBtu discount to the TTF,” Afghan said.
“This is a $0.317/MMBtu week-on-week decrease in SparkNWE DES LNG price,” he said.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU continued to rise and were 83.52 percent full on July 24.
Gas storages were 81.83 percent full on July 17, and 83.91 percent full on July 24 last year.
JKM at 12/MMBtu
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia, for September settled at $12.075/MMBtu on Thursday.
Last week, JKM for September settled at 12.115/MMBtu on Friday.
Front month JKM dropped this week to 12.095/MMBtu on Monday, 12.010/MMBtu on Tuesday, and it rose to 12.235/MMBtu on Wednesday.
Freeport LNG restart
US LNG exports reached 21 shipments in the week ending July 24, and pipeline deliveries to US terminals increased compared to the week before, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Freeport LNG, south of Houston, continued to ramp-up operations this week according to Gulf South Pipeline Company and Texas Eastern Transmission following a period of being offline due to Hurricane Beryl.
Last weekend, Freeport LNG has shipped the first cargo from its LNG export plant since the shutdown on July 7.
Egypt LNG tender
In June, Egyptian General Petroleum Corp., the parent company of EGAS, awarded a total of 20 LNG cargoes with the awardees reportedly including TotalEnergies, BP, Vitol, Trafigura, and Aramco.
Several reports said this week that EGAS has issued a new tender for five LNG cargoes.
Kpler said on Thursday that EGAS has issued its fourth summer tender to satisfy high seasonal gas demand which forced it to switch from an exporter to an importer of LNG.
The tender closes on July 29 and the cargoes will be delivered to both Egypt’s Ain Sokhna and Jordan’s Aqaba in mid- and late-August and September, Kpler said.
Kpler data shows EGAS received five cargoes this month, with the sixth arriving this weekend on the LNG carrier Hellas Athina.
The LNG carrier Global Sealine is also expected at Aqaba this weekend, it said.
In May, Norwegian FSRU player Hoegh LNG confirmed it has signed a deal with Australian Industrial Energy (AIE) and Egypt’s EGAS to deploy the 2019-built FSRU Hoegh Galleon to Egypt.
The agreement with EGAS is for an interim period of June 2024 to February 2026.
Hoegh Galleon arrived from the Sagunto LNG import terminal in Spain to Ain Sohna in June.