LNG Bunker Snapshot: Singapore's LNG premium over Rotterdam narrows
Rotterdam’s LNG bunker price surged last week due to supply disruptions at Norway’s Nyhamna gas plant and potential issues with Russian gas imports, while Singapore’s LNG price remained stable amid resumed production at Chevron’s Gorgon LNG terminal.
PHOTO: Pavilion Energy's LNG bunker vessel Brassavola delivers a stem to a Rio Tinto-chartered bulk carrier. Pavilion Energy
Changes in weekly LNG bunker prices:
- Rotterdam up by $44/mt to $683/mt
- Singapore down by $2/mt to $749/mt
Rotterdam
Rotterdam's LNG bunker price climbed by $44/mt to $683/mt in the past week, driven by the underlying front-month NYMEX Dutch TTF Natural Gas benchmark.
The TTF contract has climbed to its highest level this year due to an unplanned outage at Norway's Nyhamna gas plant, according to an Energi Danmark Securities report. The Nyhamna plant, operated by the state-owned firm Gassco, is one of the largest gas facilities in Norway.
Austrian gas supplier OMV issued a warning about potential disruptions in gas supplies from Russia's Gazprom following a court ruling. This has added to the upward pressure to the European LNG benchmark.
Germany has announced the termination of its gas storage levy effective from January 2025. This tax, applicable to natural gas piped through Germany, has faced criticism from various Central and Eastern European (CEE) nations for increasing the costs of diversifying away from Russian gas.
The move is particularly significant as Ukraine is expected not to renew its gas transit deal with Russia, which expires at the end of this year, prompting CEE countries to seek alternatives to Russian pipeline gas, head of commodity research at ING Warren Patterson said.
Singapore
Singapore's LNG bunker price stayed relatively stable in the past week. The Japan/Korea Marker (JKM) price saw a slight decline from $11.94/MMBtu to $11.91/MMBtu last week.
This marginal decrease in the JKM benchmark was partly due to Chevron Australia resuming full production at its Gorgon LNG terminal in Western Australia last week following a mechanical fault that impacted one of the production trains on April 30.
As a result, Singapore’s LNG bunker price premium over Rotterdam's LNG narrowed sharply from $112/mt in the week ending 24 May to $66/mt on Friday.
In May, classification society DNV added eight LNG-powered ships to its Alternative Fuels Insight platform, bringing the total to 547 LNG-fuelled ships in operation and 505 LNG-fuelled vessels on order for delivery by 2028.
By Debarati Bhattacharjee
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