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Last week, Atlantic LNG shipping rates remained weak.
“Spark30S rates rose for a third consecutive week, increasing marginally by $750 to $22,750 per day, and Spark25S Pacific rates fell by $2,500 to $21,250 per day,” Qasim Afghan, Spark’s commercial analyst, told LNG Prime on Friday.
“Whilst Atlantic rates have remained somewhat steady over the last few weeks, Pacific rates have continued to fall throughout Q4 and currently sits at the lowest price for a 174 2 stroke vessel since July 2020,” Afghan said.
Spot LNG charter rates are expected to remain weak in the upcoming weeks mainly due to a large number of newbuilds entering the market.
TTF discount steady
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG decreased compared to the last week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front month price for January delivery dropped by $1.286 to $12.914/MMBtu, the largest week-on-week drop in almost three months and following the year-high of $14.777/MMBtu reached last week,” Afghan said.
He said the discount to the TTF kept steady this week at -$0.225/MMBtu.
“The US arb to NE-Asia (via the Cape of Good Hope) for January is still currently closed, narrowing by $0.101 to -$0.366/MMBtu and signaling that US cargoes are incentivized to deliver to NW-Europe instead,” Afghan said.
“With the Panama LoTSA slot allocation due to start in January, the Panama Canal is set to become a feasible option again for LNG vessels in 2025. However, the US arb to NE-Asia via Panama Canal is currently also signaling US cargoes to NW-Europe, albeit it much more marginally, pricing in as closed at -$0.189/MMBtu and remaining closed until Nov25,” he said.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU continued to decline significantly and were 80.16 percent full on December 11.
Gas storages were 83.61 percent full on December 4.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in January 2025 settled at $14.950/MMBtu on Thursday.
Last week, JKM for January settled at 15.075/MMBtu on Friday, December 6.
Front-month JKM dropped slightly to 15.060/MMBtu on Monday and it dropped to 15.020/MMBtu on Tuesday and 15/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 (December 2– 6) was almost unchanged at high-$14s on December 6 from high-$14s the previous weekend.
“JKM rose to mid-$15s on December 2 due to higher European gas prices. However, high inventories and weak demand in Northeast Asia remained and continued to decline in the second half of the week,” JOGMEC said.