Atlantic LNG rates down to $92,000 per day

“Spark30S (Atlantic) rates have remained relatively steady this week, dropping $4,500 since last Friday and now at $92,000 per day,” Spark’s data lead, Qasim Afghan, told LNG Prime on Friday.

He said Spark25S (Pacific) rates have dropped $22,000 to $86,000 per day.

Geopolitical speculation

“There has been no shortage of noteworthy events this week, both buoying and shaking the LNG shipping market,” Fearnley LNG said in its weekly LNG report on Thursday.

The Oslo-based advisory and brokering firm noted that Golden Pass LNG, a joint venture owned by energy giants QatarEnergy and ExxonMobil, achieved first production of LNG from the first liquefaction train at its facility in Texas on Monday, with first exports expected in the second quarter of this year.

“Meanwhile, Cyclone Narelle has ravaged Australia’s LNG export capacity, causing suspension to operations and canceled cargoes across major facilities in Western Australia and the Northern Territories. All this remains under the cloud of ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and uncertainty as to if/when free trade can resume there,” Fearnley LNG said.

All three liquefaction trains at Chevron’s giant Gorgon LNG plant on Barrow Island are now operational following the cyclone. However, the restart of the Wheatstone LNG facility plant near Onslow is likely to take a “number of weeks” before production returns to full rates due to damaged equipment.

Australian LNG player Woodside also resumed production at its Karratha LNG plant, part of the NWS project, and ship loading operations at its Pluto LNG terminal.

Fearnley LNG said that commodity markets are “still at the mercy of geopolitical speculation.”

“We started the week with Brent Oil price at $115, Platts JKM over $20, and NWE DES at $18, but with the US once again signaling an off-ramp to hostilities, we enter the tail-end of the week with all three benchmarks significantly down,” it said.

LNG carrier via Hormuz

Fearnley LNG said that an increasing number of named tankers, bulkers, and containerships are transiting the Straits “seemingly with Iran’s blessing, fueling reports of a re-opening for ‘non-hostile’ ships and rumors of a proposed transit fee.”

“Today, we are seeing the first LNGC transit Hormuz since the start of the conflict in late February. Sohar LNG, a 137,000-cbm steam turbine vessel head-owned by Asyad/OSMC, is part way through the Straits and showing a destination of Qalhat LNG on AIS,” Fearnley LNG said.

The vessel, which is not laden, was located offshore Muscat, Oman, on Friday afternoon, according to AIS data from VesselsValue.

“In the East we’ve seen a lighter week in terms of firm spot requirements, in part due to canceled and delayed cargoes out of Australia. This, coupled with the release of five QELM vessels (four 2-strokes and one TFDE) into the spot market East of Suez, has seen 2-stroke rates soften to below $100,000/d for the first time since before conflict began in late February,” it said.

“With Ras Laffan, Das Island, and recently much of Australia offline, we see the bulk of firm demand coming out of Bintulu and Qalhat LNG. However, with the flow of Australian cargoes gradually recovering, let’s hope we see a revival of shipping demand in the coming weeks,” Fearnley LNG said.

“In the Atlantic basin, ‘developing’ requirements have been the main topic of conversation in the market this week. With the majority of upcoming laycans sitting in the fixing nether zone, owners are either unable to guarantee availability, or are reluctant to commit tonnage this far out and risk missing prompter, more lucrative cargoes,” it said.

“However, if everything tentative on the table does indeed firm up, we’re likely to see strong upcoming demand for loading out of USG, WAF, and Europe,” Fearnley LNG added.

Increased demand for delivery slots into NW-Europe

In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG dropped compared to last week.

“The SparkNWE front-month DES LNG price for May delivery is assessed at TTF-$0.450, indicating continued demand for delivery slots into NW-Europe,” Afghan said.

“The outright NWE DES LNG price is now at $16.491/MMBtu,” he said.

Afghan said that the “US prompt (M+1) arb to Asia via COGH has become extremely marginal, currently priced at -$0.081/MMBtu and narrowly pointing to Europe.”

“Despite closing out briefly last week, the Nigerian prompt arb via COGH is firmly open and pointing to Asia at +$0.500/MMBtu,” he said.

Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU dropped from last week and were 27.92 percent full on April 2, 2026.

Gas storages were 28.44 percent full on March 26, 2026, and 34.29 percent full on April 2, 2025.

JKM

In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in May 2026 settled at $19.965/MMBtu on Thursday.

Last week, JKM for May settled at 20.395/MMBtu on Friday, March 27.

Front-month JKM dropped to 20.130/MMBtu on Monday, 19.830/MMBtu on Tuesday, and it rose to 19.965/MMBtu on Wednesday.