“Spark30S (Atlantic) freight rates dropped for a fourth consecutive week, decreasing by $2,500 to $29,500 per day this week,” Spark’s data lead Qasim Afghan told LNG Prime on Friday.
Meanwhile, Spark25S (Pacific) rates stayed steady at $20,750 per day, he said.
European prices down
In Europe, the SparkNWE DES LNG dropped compared to last week.
“The SparkNWE DES LNG front-month price for June decreased this week by $0.292 to $11.175/MMBtu, driven by a fall in TTF prices amid fresh EU tariff announcements from the US,” Afghan said.
He said the discount to the TTF “is assessed at $0.520/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 -$0.189/MMBtu and still pointing to Europe. The US front-month arb to NE-Asia via Panama closed out for the first time in over three weeks, assessed at -$0.023/MMBtu and now also marginally pointing to Europe,” Afghan said.
Data by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that volumes in gas storages in the EU continued to rise and were 47.15 percent full on May 28.
Gas storages were 45.27 percent full on May 21, and 69.27 percent full on May 28, 2024.
JKM
In Asia, JKM, the price for LNG cargoes delivered to Northeast Asia in July 2025 settled at $12.295/MMBtu on Thursday.
Last week, JKM for July settled at 12.485/MMBtu on Friday, May 23.
Front-month JKM rose to 12.495/MMBtu on Tuesday. It dropped to 12.465/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 mid-$12s/MMBtu on May 23 from high-$11s/MMBtu the previous weekend.”
“JKM rose to the high-$12s in the middle of the week due to a lack of progress in peace negotiations for the Ukrainian war and a shift in market focus to summer trends, but fell to the mid-$12s later in the week due to sluggish demand in China and India,” Jogmec said.
