Spot charter rates to hire an LNG tanker on the U.S. to Europe route have jumped to their highest level in nearly two years as soaring American exports tighten the Atlantic LNG vessels market.
The spot charter rate for a tanker to ship LNG from the U.S. to Europe surged by 12% on Friday, reaching $130,750 a day, per data from Spark Commodities cited by Bloomberg. That’s the highest daily LNG shipping rate since December 2023.
Since October, LNG freight rates have rallied as U.S. export projects ramp up and tie up more vessels for exports from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Europe and Asia.
Additionally, the LNG volumes held in tankers on water have surged as traders anticipate a price rally in the winter and keep more fuel in floating storage on vessels before selling the LNG for a higher price when winter temperatures raise demand in the northern hemisphere.
The Pacific LNG shipping rates have also surged alongside the rally in Atlantic freight rates. Pacific spot LNG rates have hit their highest level in more than a year, though they remain below $100,000 per day for now.
Over the first ten months of the year, Asia’s imports of liquefied natural gas were down by over 14 million tons on the year to 225.8 million tons, according to Kpler data cited by Reuters. China was one driver of this trend, booking year-on-year LNG import declines every month since November 2024.
LNG imports into Europe, meanwhile, moved in the opposite direction. Over the first ten months of the year, Europe imported 101.38 million tons of the super-chilled fuel. This was 16.75 million tons more than what Europe imported a year earlier—even as the EU leadership boasted about permanently reducing the bloc’s consumption of natural gas, not just from Russia but in general.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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