19\/11\/25<\/p>\n
Further rise in LNG freight rates spurs repositioning<\/p>\n
London, 19 November (Argus) \u2014 An extended rise in Atlantic basin LNG spot
\ncharter rates has further widened the freight spread between basins,
\nincentivising shipowners to ballast their vessels in the Pacific to the US Gulf
\ncoast via the Panama Canal to capitalise on higher Atlantic rates. Argus ‘ ARV5
\nround-trip spot charter rates for intra-Atlantic basin voyages rose to
\n$110,000\/d on Wednesday from $86,000\/d on Friday, when rates had surged by
\n$55,000\/d in less than a month . The corresponding ARV4 rate for intra-Pacific
\nvoyages rose to $69,000\/d from $60,000\/d in the same period. The steeper rise in
\nAtlantic rates appears to have incentivised some owners to reposition their
\nPacific basin LNG carriers to the US Gulf coast, even though they would be
\nresponsible for the ballast leg and any associated Panama Canal transit fees.
\nThe empty 174,000m\u00b3 Aristos I and the empty 173,400m\u00b3 Kinisis have both operated
\nin the Pacific basin in recent months, but are travelling eastwards from
\nnortheast Asia and have declared for Balboa, the Pacific entrance of the Panama
\nCanal. These two vessels on Wednesday were travelling at 17.5 knots and 20
\nknots, respectively, quicker than the typical maximum speed of 16.5 knots for
\nLNG carriers utilising natural boil-off gas, implying the ships are either
\nsupplementing with fuel oil or using a forcing vaporiser to regasify more LNG to
\nrun the vessels. The faster-than-usual speeds indicate the vessels are looking
\nto arrive in the US Gulf for first half of December loading, the current premium
\nwindow in the market. Based on prevailing speeds, both the Aristos I and Kinisis
\ncould arrive in the US Gulf by 10 December, assuming there is no congestion at
\nthe Panama Canal. The latest fixture heard in the market for a first-half
\nDecember loading in the US Gulf closed at $145,000\/d, with US LNG producer
\nCheniere sub-letting a vessel to German utility EnBW, market participants said.
\nIf the Aristos I and Kinisis are chartered out on similar rates, the ballast leg
\ncosts \u2014 accounting for the loss of Pacific basin income at $69,000\/d, boil-off
\nusage at around $10\/mn Btu \u2014 could be recovered with an Atlantic basin charter
\nof around 42 days, should the owners be able to secure a northbound Neopanamax
\nslot at the auction minimum bid of $100,000, based on Argus calculations ( see
\ntable ). If the owners have already secured a regular Neopanamax slot, which
\ntypically costs around $665,000 for a ballast transit, its breakeven Atlantic
\nbasin charter would be even lower at 40 days. The most expensive northbound
\nNeopanamax slot awarded to an LNG carrier so far this year closed at over $1.7mn
\nin August, for the 174,000m\u00b3 Maran Gas Kimolos . If the shipowners need to bid
\nat these levels, the breakeven charter would need to be at least 61 days. But
\nthe charter length required to make up the cost of the ballast leg \u2014 if owners
\nare able to obtain rates at or higher than $145,000\/d \u2014 has more than halved
\ncompared with a week ago. Moving Pacific basin vessels to the Atlantic was too
\nrisky last week, but with early-December fixtures closing at well over
\n$100,000\/d at present, the financial incentive has improved to a point where
\nowners may take the risk, market participants said. If more vessels choose to
\nreposition from the Pacific to the Atlantic and increase available supply, rates
\nwould likely come under pressure and the incentive to ballast to the US Gulf
\nwould fall again. Several empty vessels intended for the 14mn t\/yr LNG Canada
\nplant are holding in the mid-Pacific, and would be able to arrive in the US Gulf
\nvia the Panama Canal in the first week of December under the same assumptions.
\nBy Bonnie Lao Pacific to Atlantic ballast breakeven Scenario Breakeven days
\nAtlantic rate at $145,000\/d, Pacific at $69,000\/d Loss of Pacific income +
\nregular neopanamax transit fee 40 Loss of Pacific income + minimum neopanamax
\nbid 42 Loss of Pacific income + maximum 2025 neopanamax cost 61 Atlantic rate at
\n$110,000\/d, Pacific at $69,000\/d Loss of Pacific income + regular neopanamax
\ntransit fee 72 Loss of Pacific income + minimum neopanamax bid 74 Loss of
\nPacific income + maximum 2025 neopanamax cost 115 Atlantic rate at $85,000\/d,
\nPacific at $55,000\/d Loss of Pacific income + regular neopanamax transit fee 90
\nLoss of Pacific income + minimum neopanamax bid 94 Loss of Pacific income +
\nmaximum 2025 neopanamax cost 150 *assumes boil-off costs of around $10\/mn Btu
\nSend comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright
\n\u00a9 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"19\/11\/25 Further rise in LNG freight rates spurs repositioning London, 19 November (Argus) \u2014 An extended rise in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-57751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}