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Spark’s data lead, Qasim Afghan, told LNG Prime on Friday that global LNG freight rates rose again this week to reach the highest rates of 2025 so far.
“Spark30S (Atlantic) freight rates increased by $5,250 to $31,000 per day, whilst Spark25S (Pacific) rates experienced its largest week-on-week rise in seven months, rising by $7,500 to $27,250 per day,” he said.
“After sitting at record lows for much of this year, the recovery in rates seen this month has meant that LNG freight rates are now at similar levels to pre-2022 rates for this time of year,” Afghan said.
European prices climb
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG rose compared to $12.829/MMBt last week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front month price for April increased by $0.159 to $12.988/MMBtu, whilst the discount to the TTF widened by $0.075 to -$0.635/MMBtu,” Afghan said.
He said the “US arb to NE-Asia (via the Cape of Good Hope) remained steady week-on-week at -$0.36/MMBtu and continues to incentivize US cargoes to deliver to Europe.”
“The Nigerian front month arb to NE-Asia, despite briefly opening up earlier this week, has marginally closed out again and is pointing to Europe, assessed at -$0.038/MMBtu,” Afghan said.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU declined from last week and were 34.02 percent full on March 19.
Gas storages were 35.89 percent full on March 12, and 59.37 percent full on March 19, 2024.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in May 2025 settled at $13.530/MMBtu on Thursday.
Last week, JKM for April settled at 13.644/MMBtu on Friday, March 14.
Front-month JKM decreased to 13.180/MMBtu on Monday and to 13.105/MMBtu on Tuesday, while it rose to 13.775/MMBtu on Wednesday.
State-run Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (Jogmec) said in a report earlier this week that JKM for last week “rose to low-$13s on March 14 from low-$12s the previous weekend.”
“JKM rose to mid-$13s on March 11 due to tensions in the war in Ukraine, which rose by the backdrop of the attack on gas production facilities in Ukraine on March 7 and President Trump’s threat of sanctions and additional tariffs against Russia over the peace talks,” Jogmec said.
“JKM then turned around and fell to low-$13s on March 14 on the back of significant progress toward the peace talks conversely easing of geopolitical risks, as well as lower global gas prices and forecasts of lower demand in the shoulder season,” Jogmec added.