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Spark30S Atlantic freight rates were at $23,500 per day this week, and Q4 2024 continues to price in as the lowest quarter on record for a 174 2-stroke vessel in the Atlantic basin, Qasim Afghan, Spark’s commercial analyst, told LNG Prime on Friday.
“Spark25S Pacific rates dropped by $500 to $21,500 per day, with December currently assessed as the lowest priced month of 2024 for the Pacific basin,” Afghan said.
TTF discount narrowed slightly
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG rose compared to 12.913/MMBtu last week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front month price for January delivery increased by $0.84 to $13.753/MMBtu, further recovering from the quarterly low of $12.212/MMBtu seen last week, whilst the discount to the TTF narrowed slightly this week to -$0.175/MMBtu,” Afghan said.
He said the “US arb to NE-Asia (via the Cape of Good Hope) for January is still currently closed, widening by $0.219 to -$0.532/MMBtu due to the recent TTF rally and signaling that US cargoes are incentivized to deliver to NW-Europe instead.”
“The US arb to NE-Asia via Panama Canal is now much less marginal as compared to last week, widening by $0.249 to -$0.326/MMBtu,” Afghan said.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU continued to decline and were 74.74 percent full on December 25.
Gas storages were 76.73 percent full on December 18, 2024, and 86.90 percent full on December 25, 2023.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in February 2025 settled at $13.965/MMBtu on Wednesday.
Last week, JKM for January settled at 13.665/MMBtu on Friday, December 20.
Front-month JKM rose to 13.985/MMBtu on Monday and it dropped to 13.965/MMBtu on Tuesday.
State-run Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) said in a report earlier this week that JKM for last week (December 16–20) rose to high-$13s on December 20 from mid-$13s the previous weekend.
“JKM rose in line with rising gas prices in Europe, with high inventories and weak demand in Northeast Asia unchanged,” JOGMEC said.