Spark30S Atlantic freight rates dropped by $750 to $24,000 per day, and Spark25S (Pacific) remained steady at $21,750 per day, Qasim Afghan, Spark’s commercial analyst, told LNG Prime on Friday.
“January 2025 is currently on course to be the lowest priced January on record for a 174 2-stroke vessel, albeit still pricing approximately $2,000-$3,000 higher than November and December 2024,” Afghan said.
Largest drop since August 2023
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG decreased compared to 14.904/MMBtu last week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front month price for February delivery dropped $1.580 to $13.324/MMBtu, the largest week-on-week drop since August 2023,” Afghan said.
He said the discount to the Dutch TTF price “widened slightly this week, pricing in at -$0.255/MMBtu.”
“The US arb to NE-Asia (via the Cape of Good Hope) for February narrowed by $0.151 to -$0.610/MMBtu, continuing to signal that US cargoes are incentivized to deliver to NW-Europe instead,” Afghan said.
“The front-month US arb to NE-Asia (via the Cape) has remained below -$0.5/MMBtu for over two weeks now, marking the first time this winter that the arb has remained firmly closed for an extended period of time, which is likely a large driving factor behind the recent diversions of US cargoes away from Asia and towards Europe,” he said.
In addition, “the US arb to NE-Asia via Panama Canal is also firmly closed at -$0.478/MMBtu,” he said.
European prices jumped last week after Gazprom halted pipeline gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine, following the expiry of the five-year Russia-Ukraine gas transit agreement.
Last week, Norway’s Equinor also shut its 4.3 mtpa Hammerfest LNG export plant due to a compressor failure.
Equinor also extended the shutdown of the LNG export plant by 10 days due to additional repair work.
The company plans to restart the facility, which mainly supplies LNG to European countries, on January 19.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU continued to decline and were 68.24 percent full on January 8.
Gas storages were 71.79 percent full on January 1, 2025, and 83.35 percent full on January 8, 2024.
Dutch gas storage
Dutch gas grid and LNG terminal operator, Gasunie, said on Thursday that low storage levels in Dutch gas storages do not directly endanger the security of supply.
However, a severe winter could lead to a tight supply and higher gas prices in the wholesale market. This could affect costs for households and businesses, depending on developments in the coming months, the company said.
Dutch gas storages were 52.24 percent full on January 8, lower than observed in recent years.
Gasunie said this is due to an extraction rate significantly higher than can be expected based on temperature trends alone.
“Currently, there is sufficient gas from LNG imports, gas production in the Netherlands, and adequate supply of gas through pipelines and interconnections,” the company said.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in February 2025 settled at $14.190/MMBtu on Thursday.
Last week, JKM for February settled at 14.360/MMBtu on Friday, January 3.
Front-month JKM dropped to 14.285/MMBtu on Monday, 14.270/MMBtu on Tuesday, and 14.225/MMBtu on Wednesday.
State-run Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) said in a report earlier this week that the “situation of high inventory and sluggish demand in Northeast Asia remains unchanged.”
