“Spark30S (Atlantic) freight rates experienced a fourth week-on-week drop, decreasing by $750 to $21,750 per day,” Spark’s data lead, Qasim Afghan, told LNG Prime.
He said that Spark25S (Pacific) rates dropped by $1,500 to $23,250 per day.
US tariff turbulence
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG rose compared to $10.184/MMBtu last week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front month price for May rose by $0.761 to $10.945/MMBtu, partially recovering from the large drop seen last week due to US tariff-related market turbulence,” Afghan said.
He said the discount to the TTF “widened by $0.11 to $0.835/MMBtu, the widest discount in over a year and indicating strong demand for LNG delivery slots in NW-Europe.”
“The US front-month arb to NE-Asia (via the Cape of Good Hope) increased to -$0.085/MMBtu, and is now only marginally pointing to Europe,” he said.
Also, “the US front-month arb to NE-Asia via Panama has opened up for the first time in almost six months, assessed at $0.023/MMBtu and marginally pointing to Asia. Similarly, the Nigerian front-month arb to NE-Asia has increased to $0.266 and continues to point to Asia for the second consecutive week,” Afghan said.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU rose from last week and were 35.96 percent full on April 15.
Gas storages were 34.97 percent full on April 9, and 62.32 percent full on April 16, 2024.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in June 2025 settled at $11.860/MMBtu on Wednesday.
Last week, JKM for May settled at 12.454/MMBtu on Friday, April 11.
Front-month JKM dropped to 12.520/MMBtu on Monday and to 12.462/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 fell to “low-$11s on April 11 from low-$12s the previous weekend.”
“JKM was on a downtrend throughout the week on concerns of trade friction and a worsening global economy due to the Trump administration’s introduction of retaliatory tariffs. It rose slightly on April 8, when a 10-month low price level attracted buyers such as India, but continued to fall thereafter,” Jogmec said.
