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Last week, Pacific rates experienced a $2,500 increase and Atlantic rates decreased.
“Spark30s Atlantic rates experienced a week-on-week increase for the first time in a month, rising by $1,500 to $75,250 per day,” Qasim Afghan, Spark’s commercial analyst told LNG Prime on Friday.
Spark25S Pacific rates rose by $11,500 to $86,750 per day.
“This marks the seventh consecutive weekly increase and the largest week-on-week increase this year,” Afghan said.
European prices
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG front continued to rise this week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front month price for September delivery is assessed at $12.717/MMBtu, experiencing a $1.104/MMBtu week-on-week increase and rising by $2.734/MMBtu (27 percent) in the last two weeks,” Afghan said.
“The discount to the TTF remained narrow this week, currently assessed at $0.10/MMBtu,” he said.
European prices rose in the last two weeks due to geopolitical risks in the Middle East and fears of supply disruptions.
On the other hand, data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU continued to rise and were 86.65 percent full on August 7.
Gas storages were 85.12 percent full on July 31, and 87.57 percent full on August 7, 2023.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia, for September settled at $12.565/MMBtu on Thursday.
Last week, JKM for September settled at 12.520/MMBtu on July 25.
Front month JKM dropped to 12.445/MMBtu and it rose to 12.510/MMBtu and 12.535/MMBtu on Tuesday an Wednesday.
State-run Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) said in report earlier this week that JKM for last week rose to high-$12s on August 2 from low-$12s the previous weekend.
“After five straight sessions of price gains through July 29, JKM fell on July 30 due to decline in appetite in major Asian LNG consuming countries. However, JKM rose again after that due to forecast of high temperature and rising tensions in Middle East, in the period of preparing for procurements in winter season,” JOGMEC said.
According to S&P Global Commodity Insights data, traded volumes for the JKM LNG futures cleared on Intercontinental Exchange in July fell slightly by 6.84 percent month-on-month and rose 19.12 percent year-on-year to 68,536 lots.
This is equivalent to approximately 13.18 million mt, or 208 LNG cargoes.
Asian LNG spot prices remained below $12.30/MMBtu in July, driven by ample supply of cargoes, with traders bringing more US shipments for August delivery into the market due to open arbitrage opportunities, alongside relatively muted demand, S&P Global Commodity Insights said.
The Platts JKM fell month on month, with the average JKM price in July at $12.158/MMBtu from $12.578/MMBtu in June, it said.