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“Global LNG freight rates hit record lows this week, with the Spark30S (Atlantic) assessment dropping $11,000 to $9,000 per day – the lowest rates on record for a 174 2-stroke vessel,” Qasim Afghan, Spark’s commercial analyst, told LNG Prime on Friday.
“This has largely been driven by increased vessel availability, due to the increased influx of newbuilds entering the market, as well as US spot cargoes heavily incentivized to deliver to Europe, and thus stay within the Atlantic basin, after the recent TTF rally,” he said.
He said Pacific freight routes have largely followed suit, with the Spark25S (Pacific) assessment dropping $3,250 to reach a record low of $15,500 per day.
US, Qatari LNG cargoes heading to Europe
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG increased compared to $13.664/MMBtu last week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front month price for February delivery rose by $0.930 to $14.594/MMBtu this week,” Afghan said.
He said this was driven by the recent TTF rally which saw the SparkNWE DES LNG price reach its highest point of $14.909 earlier this week.
“The discount to the TTF widened for a fourth consecutive week, widening by $0.08 to -$0.375/MMBtu and indicating increased demand for LNG delivery slots in NW-Europe,” Afghan said.
Moreover, “the US arb to NE-Asia (via the Cape of Good Hope) for February widened by $0.517 to -$1.368/MMBtu, strongly signaling that US cargos are incentivized to deliver to Europe instead of Asia,” he said.
“The Qatar front month arb to NE-Asia has closed out for the first time in almost 2 years, pricing in at -$0.076/MMBtu and indicating that yet another major global LNG supplier is incentivized to direct their cargos to Europe instead of Asia,” Afghan said.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU declined considerably from last week and were 57.60 percent full on January 22.
Gas storages were 63.64 percent full on January 15, and 73.78 percent full on January 22, 2024.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in March 2025 settled at $13.975/MMBtu on Thursday.
Last week, JKM for February settled at 13.780/MMBtu on Friday, January 17.
Front-month JKM rose to 14.410/MMBtu on Tuesday, and it dropped to 14.115/MMBtu on Wednesday.
State-run Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) said in a report earlier this week that JKM rose to the low-$14s in the first half of the week (January 13-17) due to rising supply uncertainties in Europe, including strengthening US sanctions against Russia, but turned lower in the middle of the week with no change in sluggish demand in Northeast Asia.
Freeport LNG
US LNG plants shipped 22 cargoes during the week ending January 22, seven fewer shipments compared to the week before.
The US EIA said in its weekly report that inclement weather led to temporary closures of major waterways serving LNG export terminals, which may have contributed to lower LNG exports this week compared with last week.
Moreover, Freeport LNG’s liquefaction production operations have been taken offline due to intermittent Centerpoint Energy power interruptions beginning early Tuesday morning.
“Our liquefaction production operations will remain offline until power transmission conditions stabilize,” a Freeport LNG spokeswoman told LNG Prime on Thursday.