Lagos — The spot Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, freight rates are climbing ahead of the winter, according to analysts.
Atlantic rates saw monthly gains of over 108% in June to $75,250 per day while Pacific rates gained 84% in June to reach $70,500 per day, its highest levels since late March, Reuters reports.
On spot LNG freight, rates continued to rise this month as vessel availability starts to tighten ahead of winter, said Edward Armitage, an analyst at Spark Commodities.
But, LNG prices are flat as demand remained muted and inventories high.
The average LNG price for August delivery into north-east Asia was at $12 per million British thermal units, MmBtu, industry sources, quoted by Reuters, estimated. Prices had earlier hit a low of $9/MmBtu on weak demand and high inventories, but, rose to a three-month high of $13.50/mmBtu on June 16, tracking gains in Europe gas prices.
For the first half of 2023, Asia LNG prices have shed nearly two-thirds of its value on weak restocking demand amid high stockpiles.
“Demand in northeast Asia for additional spot purchases remains limited, with few buyers in the region looking to top up their late summer, instead starting to eye demand for the coming winter,” said Samuel Good, head of LNG pricing at commodity pricing agency Argus.
In Europe, LNG prices have been broadly tracking movements of the Dutch TTF price, the European gas price benchmark. Argus assessed the north-west Europe LNG price on an ex-ship (DES) basis at $10.55/MmBtu, while Spark Commodities estimated the price at $10.776/mmBtu.
Europe gas prices rose at the start of the month on new and extended Norwegian outages and political stability concerns in Russia after an aborted mutiny by Wagner Group mercenaries, but later eased on higher wind output forecasts, softer consumption and healthy storage levels.
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