Spot charter rates for the global liquefied natural gas carrier fleet are continuing to fall in both basins, according to Spark Commodities.
“LNG freight rates continue to slide in both basins on increasing vessel availabilities,” Spark said on Monday.
Last week, the firm reported the “sharpest drop” in Spark25 Pacific LNG freight rate this year while its Atlantic LNG rate also declined, as vessel availability rose following the ongoing Freeport restart delays.
The Spark25 Pacific spot LNG freight rate for a 160,000-cbm TFDE carrier dropped $25,500 to $330,750/day on Monday.
As per the Atlantic rate, it decreased $10,500 to $365,250/day on Monday, Spark said.
Despite these drops, the freight rates remain at very high levels.
In October, both of the rates reached above $400,000/ day, with the Atlantic rate reaching more than $480,000/day.
The rate rose more than six times from about $80,000/day at the end of August.
The operator of the 15 mtpa Freeport LNG export terminal on Quintana Island recently again delayed the restart of the facility in Texas.
Freeport LNG is now targeting initial production at the facility in mid-December.
Prior to the shutdown on June 8, most of the cargoes produced at the plant this year landed in Europe. This is the case with other US LNG terminals as well.
European LNG imports from the US surged this year mostly due to high prices and as European countries look to ditch Russian pipeline gas supplies.
The Dutch TTF for December settled at $37.665 on Monday while the JKM LNG price for January 2023 settled at $30.280 per MMBtu.
