Spark’s data lead, Qasim Afghan, told LNG Prime on Friday that Spark30S (Atlantic) LNG freight rates have set a new week-on-week change record, also reaching a weekly high of $287,500 on Thursday – the highest Atlantic freight rates since December 2022.
Spark25S (Pacific) rates have followed suit, increasing $191,000 to $219,250 per day, he said.
“The LNG and shipping markets are experiencing seismic shocks in the wake of military action across the Middle East,” Fearnley LNG said in its weekly LNG report.
The Oslo-based advisory and brokering firm said that the geopolitical situation is “evolving rapidly, and information flow is often speculative and unvalidated.”
“Several vital questions that will determine the near-future of the market remain unanswered: How long will Middle East production remain offline? How will Asia adapt to reduced supply? When will Europe replenish low storage levels? How will US volumes be distributed between importers?,” Fearnley LNG said.
“It is too early to comment with certainty, but what has been quantified is the response of the shipping market. These past few days have shown charterers are willing to pay rates ten times the levels from last week to secure prompt tonnage,” it said.
“Beyond the spot market, there is heightened interest for multi-month periods up to year close to the six-figure range. These levels were unthinkable as we prepared our report last week,” the firm said.
European prices jump
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG jumped compared to last week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG price, assessed as a basis to the TTF, narrowed $0.93 to TTF – $0.055 for NW-Europe front month delivery – this marks the largest weekly change since winter 2022, as the basis moved from its widest discount to the TTF since July 2023 last week, to now the narrowest discount since August 2023,” Afghan said.
He said that the “outright DES LNG price is priced at $17.165/MMBtu, the highest outright DES LNG price since January 2023.”
“TTF prices for May 2026 are up $6.454 (+59 percent) since last Friday’s close, now priced at $17.335/MMBtu, and reached a weekly high of $21.397 on Tuesday morning. In that same period, the JKM-TTF regional price spread increased +2.775 to +$2.550/MMBtu in favour of Asia, and reached a weekly high of $6.25 on Tuesday morning,” he said.
“On the back of the JKM-TTF gains earlier this week, the US front-month arb (via COGH) had its strongest signal to Asia since December 2022, which was then accompanied with reports of several vessels diverting from Europe to Asia. However, since then, soaring freight rates & a significant narrowing of the JKM-TTF spread has caused the front-month arb to close out again, now strongly pointing to Europe at -$1.149/MMBtu,” Afghan said.
“This is a $4.239 swing in prompt US cargo regional price signals, exemplifying the extreme within-week volatility seen this week as a result of the events in the Middle East. The Nigerian front-month arb saw similar volatility, but remains open to Asia at +$0.342/MMBtu,” he said.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU dropped from last week and were 29.59 percent full on March 4, 2026.
Gas storages were 30.19 percent full on February 25, 2026, and 37.24 percent full on March 4, 2025.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in April 2026 settled at $15.495/MMBtu on Thursday.
Last week, JKM for April settled at 10.725/MMBtu on Friday, February 27.
Front-month JKM rose to 13.365/MMBtu on Monday and 15.3770/MMBtu on Tuesday. It dropped to 15.105/MMBtu on Wednesday.
