Spot charter rates for the global liquefied natural gas carrier fleet dropped considerably this week due to the shutdown at the Freeport LNG facility in Texas, according to Spark Commodities.
“A sharp move lower in LNG freight spot rates today as vessel availability continues to increase following the Freeport shutdown,” Spark said.
LNG freight rate for a 160,000-cbm TFDE carrier reached $77,750 a day in the Atlantic on Thursday.
Compared to the previous week, the rate dropped by $22,50O.
On the other side, the Pacific rate also dropped to $77,750 per day, down by $13,750 from the last week, according to Spark.
To remind, Freeport LNG now expects to resume partial operation at its 15 mtpa liquefaction and export plant in Texas in about 90 days after an incident at the facility last week.
The LNG terminal operator said it does not expect completion of all necessary repairs and a return to full plant operations until late 2022.
The news of the prolonged shutdown affected both the US Henry Hub price and the Dutch TTF price.
Besides this, the TTF price surged on Thursday to more than 142.25 euros per megawatt-hour amid concerns over Russian gas supplies. Gazprom reduced volumes to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline saying there was a problem with gas turbines.