This story requires a subscription
This includes a single user license.
Spark’s data lead, Qasim Afghan, told LNG Prime on Friday that Spark30S (Atlantic) rates continue to drop for an eighth consecutive week, decreasing $10,000 to $16,250 per day – the lowest levels since February 2025.
Spark25S (Pacific) rates decreased $7,000 to $34,250 per day, he said.
“Following last week’s surge in fixing activity, when Atlantic spot fixtures alone reached double digits, the market has slowed this week even as spot charter rates have continued to slide to levels few would have expected for January,” Fearnley LNG said in its weekly LNG report.
The Oslo-based advisory and brokering firm said that “the sudden weakness is a mirror image of the stronger-than-anticipated Q4 spike, highlighting the unpredictability of the LNG shipping market.”
“Oversupply of modern tonnage remains the key pressure, reinforced by elevated European gas prices and expectations of weaker short-term tonne-mile demand,” it said.
Fearnley LNG noted that the “price disparities between the basins have prompted some players to consider delivering East-of-Suez cargoes into Europe, although this is unlikely to have a material impact on overall fleet balance.”
“Now more than halfway through January, the steady churn of newbuild deliveries from the yards is picking up again, weighing further on sentiment for short multi-month employment. Two fresh LNG carrier orders were placed this week, suggesting 2026 may shape up as a strong year for shipyards,” Fearnley LNG said.
European prices climb
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG increased compared to last week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front-month price for February increased $1.75 to $12.444/MMBtu. The basis to the TTF is assessed at -$0.650/MMBtu, marking the widest basis since October 2025 and indicating increased demand for delivery slots into NW-Europe,” Afghan said.
“The US front-month arb (via COGH) closed out further this week, currently assessed at -$1.462/MMBtu. This week saw the strongest signal to Europe for US prompt cargoes since December 2022, driven by continuing falls in the JKM-TTF spread as the JKM fails to match the recent TTF rally,” Afghan said.
“Similarly, the Nigerian front-month arb (via COGH) has closed out further and continues to point to Europe, assessed at -$0.994/MMBtu,” he said.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU dipped from last week and were 47.63 percent full on January 21, 2026.
Gas storages were 51.87 percent full on January 14, 2026, and 68.40 percent full on January 21, 2025.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in February 2025 settled at $11.285/MMBtu on Friday
Last week, JKM for February settled at 11.155/MMBtu on Friday, January 16.
Front-month JKM dropped to 10.805/MMBtu on Tuesday. It rose to 11.335/MMBtu on Wednesday and dropped to 11.200/MMBtu on Thursday.