Spot charter rates for the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier fleet continued to rise this week as the spot window moved further into winter, according to Spark Commodities.
Last week, LNG freight rates rose in both basins with the Spark30S Atlantic rate rising by $22,750 to $182,750 per day, and the Spark25S Pacific increasing by $20,500 to $187,750 per day, as positive NWE floating storage economics for October tied up vessels.
“The spot rate stood at $197,750 per day in both the Atlantic and the Pacific, up $15,000 per day week-on-week on the Atlantic Spark30 route and $10,000 per day week-on-week on the Pacific Spark25 route,” Edward Armitage, Spark’s commercial analyst told LNG Prime on Friday.
As per European LNG pricing, SparkNWE DES LNG front month increased from the last week.
Last week, NWE DES LNG for October deliveries increased by $0.827 to $10.558 per MMBtu.
“SparkNWE DES LNG, which Spark publishes daily, was assessed at $11.912 per MMBtu for October23 deliveries, a $0.305 discount to the October23 TTF price,” Armitage said.
The TTF price for October settled at $12.232 per MMBtu on Thursday, while the JKM spot LNG price for November settled at $14.330 per MMBtu.
Natural gas prices have been volatile since the last month due to uncertainty about LNG supplies coming from Woodside’s NWS plant and Chevron’s Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG export terminals.
However, unions representing Chevron’s workers at the Gorgon and Wheatstone facilities have on Friday decided to suspend strikes that began two weeks ago.
Woodside reached an agreement to avoid NWS LNG strike last month.