Spot charter rates for the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier fleet continued to rise this week ahead of winter, according to Spark Commodities.
Last week, LNG freight rates moved higher with the Spark30S Atlantic rising to $75,500 per day and the Spark25S Pacific rising to $73,500 per day.
Edward Armitage, Spark’s commercial analyst, told LNG Prime on Friday that the rally in LNG freight rates ahead of Winter accelerated this week with the Atlantic Spark30S up $14,750 to $90,250 per day and the Pacific Spark25S up $12,250 per day to $85,750 per day.
“The SparkFFA Atlantic forward curve remains in steep contango showing further tightening over the coming months into winter, with the September23 forward rate at $151,750 per day and October23 at $197,750 per day before forward rates peak this winter at $257,250 per day in December23,” he said.
As per European LNG pricing, SparkNWE for September deliveries increased significantly this week.
“SparkNWE for September23 deliveries jumped $2.143 this week to $11.891 per MMBtu tracking the sharp TTF move higher, with the NWE differential moving to a discount of $0.075 to the TTF,” Armitage said.
The TTF price for September settled at $11.986 per MMBtu on Thursday, while the JKM spot LNG price for September settled at $11.045 per MMBtu.
Several reports said that news of potential strikes at three Australian LNG terminals boosted the TTF price by 28.2 percent to $12.881 per MMBtu on Wednesday.
The Woodside-operated North West Shelf and the Chevron-operated Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG projects in Western Australia have a combined capacity of about 40.8 million tonnes of LNG per year and these terminals mostly supply Japan and South Korea.
