Spot liquefied natural gas freight rates and European LNG prices continued to decline this week, according to Spark Commodities.
Last week, LNG freight rates decreased as well. The Spark30S Atlantic decreased to $155,250 per day, while the Spark25S Pacific decreased to $141,000 per day.
“LNG freight rates fell once again week, with a 8 percent week-on-week decrease for Atlantic rates and a 17 percent week-on-week decrease for Pacific rates,” Qasim Afghan, Spark’s commercial analyst told LNG Prime on Friday.
Afghan said that the Atlantic rate decreased by $12,750 to $142,500 per day, whilst the Pacific rate decreased by $24,000 to $117,000 per day.
“Spark25S is at its lowest price since August 22 and both basins are currently at their lowest December spot price in three years,” he said.
European, Asian LNG prices down
As per European LNG pricing, the SparkNWE DES LNG front month also declined from the last week.
The NWE DES LNG for January delivery was assessed last week at $12.689/MMBtu and at a $0.770/MMBtu discount to the Dutch TTF.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG price for January delivery is assessed at $11.887/MMBtu and at a $0.745/MMBtu discount to the TTF,” Afghan said on Friday.
“This is a $0.802/MMBtu decrease in DES LNG price, and the discount to the TTF narrowed by $0.025/MMBtu, when compared to last week’s January prices,” he said.
According to Platts data, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia, dropped from the last week.
JKM for January settled at $16.050/MMBtu on Thursday.
Platts said in a report that freight rates to ship LNG from the US Gulf Coast region to both Northwest Europe and Asia cooled this week due to high gas inventories and lagging demand weigh on the market.
The weak economic outlook, combined with mild temperature forecasts, have kept gas demand subdued in Europe at a time of high inventories and ample supply from the US, it said.
In addition, the availability of vessels for delivering LNG across the Atlantic was heard to have risen.
Platts also said the Panama Canal delays have helped to keep Asian LNG prices at a premium to those seen in Europe.