“Spark30S (Atlantic) freight rates dropped $6,500 to $32,500 per day this week, the largest week-on-week drop since January,” Spark’s data lead Qasim Afghan told LNG Prime on Friday.
Meanwhile, Spark25S (Pacific) rates continue to remain relatively flat at $22,250 per day, he said.
Demand in Europe
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG dropped compared to last week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front month price for June is assessed at $10.946/MMBtu, dropping $0.095 week-on-week,” Afghan said.
He said the discount to the TTF “is assessed at $0.615/MMBtu, continuing to indicate strong demand for LNG delivery slots in NW-Europe.”
“The US front-month arb to NE-Asia (via the Cape of Good Hope) increased further this week, pricing in at $-0.08/MMBtu and only marginally pointing to Europe. The US front-month arb to NE-Asia via Panama continues to point to Asia, assessed at $0.126/MMBtu,” Afghan said.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU continued to rise and were 43.67 percent full on May 14.
Gas storages were 41.84 percent full on May 7, and 65.79 percent full on May 14, 2024.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in June 2025 settled at $11.880/MMBtu on Thursday.
Last week, JKM for June settled at 11.465/MMBtu on Friday, May 9.
Front-month JKM dropped to 11.440/MMBtu on Monday. It rose to 11.460/MMBtu on Tuesday and 11.475/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 rose to “high-$11s/MMBtu on May 9 from low-11s/MMBtu the previous weekend.”
“JKM rose throughout the week as competition for procurement intensified ahead of the summer season, particularly between Europe and Asia, although end-user demand in Asia remained weak,” Jogmec said.
