“Spark30S (Atlantic) freight rates dropped for a third consecutive week, decreasing by $500 to $32,000 per day this week,” Spark’s data lead Qasim Afghan told LNG Prime on Friday.
Meanwhile, Spark25S (Pacific) rates dropped by $1,500 to $20,750 per day, he said.
European prices climb
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG rose compared to last week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front-month price for June is assessed at $11.467/MMBtu, increasing by $0.521 week-on-week and marking a $1.41/MMBtu recovery in front-month prices since hitting a yearly low at the end of April,” Afghan said.
He said the discount to the TTF is “assessed at $0.550/MMBtu, the narrowest basis in over two months but continuing to indicate demand for LNG delivery slots in NW-Europe.”
“The US front-month arb to NE-Asia (via the Cape of Good Hope) decreased this week, pricing in at $-0.14/MMBtu and still pointing to Europe. The US front-month arb to NE-Asia via Panama continues to point to Asia, assessed at $0.086/MMBtu,” Afghan said.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU continued to rise and were 45.27 percent full on May 21.
Gas storages were 43.67 percent full on May 14, and 67.53 percent full on May 21, 2024.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in July 2025 settled at $12.350/MMBtu on Thursday.
Last week, JKM for July settled at 11.895/MMBtu on Friday, May 16.
Front-month JKM rose to 11.965/MMBtu on Monday and to 12.515/MMBtu on Tuesday. It dropped to 12.480/MMBtu on Wednesday.
State-run Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (Jogmec) said in a report earlier this week that JKM for last week was “almost unchanged at high-$11s/MMBtu on May 16 (July delivery) from high-$11s/MMBtu the previous weekend.”
“JKM continued to move modestly throughout the week within a range in high-$11s due to the factors such as peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, economic recovery due to easing tariffs between US and China, and expectations that summer demand will boost purchasing interest. But the demand from Northeast Asia remained subdued,” Jogmec said.
