Rotterdam’s LNG bunker price has been steady despite a decline in the underlying gas price, while Singapore’s price has continued to decline and is now almost on par with Rotterdam’s.

Weekly changes in LNG bunker prices:

• Rotterdam up by $2/mt to $692/mt
• Singapore down by $7/mt to $696/mt

Rotterdam

Rotterdam’s LNG bunker price has been roughly steady on the week, after a sizeable drop in the previous week. A fall in the underlying Dutch TTF Natural Gas contract has been countered by a rise in LNG bunker delivery premiums.

The bunker delivery premium for LNG delivered in the ARA has gone up by $0.23/MMBtu ($12/mt) on the week, to $2.38/MMBtu ($124/mt), according to prices gathered and assessed by ENGINE.

Front-month TTF is down by $0.74/MMBtu ($38/mt) on the week to $10.93/MMBtu ($568/mt). That is a sharp decline from a high of $13.42/MMBtu ($698/mt) at the start of April.

There are signs of the European gas market cooling off, with import volumes around 7% down on the month in April, to 9.66 million mt, or around 10 cargoes, reckons EklipX Research’s Barukh Abadi.

A lower TTF has contributed to make Rotterdam’s LNG more competitive against LSMGO for dual-fuel vessels sailing in Emission Control Areas (ECAs). LNG is still at a $7/mt premium over LSMGO on a VLSFO-equivalent basis, but these prices do not take the comparatively greater emission costs for LSMGO consumed on EU-linked voyages into account. To get a full view of that, you can read our latest Fuel Switch Snapshot.

Beyond the ARA, LNG prices have come off by $10-13/mt for deliveries the Baltic Sea and in Portugal. The ARA is currently at $86/mt and $42/mt discounts to these locations, respectively.

Singapore

Singapore’s LNG bunker price continues to drop and has come within just $4/mt of Rotterdam’s price.

Singapore’s price has declined amid a $0.12/MMBtu ($6/mt) decrease in ENGINE’s assessed bunker delivery premium, which has fallen to $2.12/MMBtu ($110/mt).

LNG bunker prices have come off despite a roughly steady front-month NYMEX Japan-Korea Market (JKM) price of $11.27/MMBtu ($586/mt).

Asian LNG imports fell by around 4% from March to April, according to EklipX Research’s Barukh Abadi.

VLSFO-equivalent LNG is still pricier than VLSFO ($86/mt premium) and LSMGO ($19/mt) in Singapore, but less so now after the LNG price has declined further.

Other LNG bunker news

The Middle East could get its first LNG bunker hub in 2028. TotalEnergies and Omani oil and gas firm OQ Exploration and Production (OQEP) has just started building the Marsa LNG production plant, which has a nameplate capacity of 1 million mt/year and will produce LNG for bunkering and other outlets.

20 LNG-capable vessels were added to the global orderbook last month, bringing the total to 629 LNG-capable vessels on order for deliveries towards 2033, according to DNV data. 715 LNG-capable vessels are already in operation.

Molgas has supplied its first bio-LNG stem in Spain. The Spanish LNG bunker supplier delivered an unspecified quantity of bio-LNG by truck to Norwegian car carrier firm UECC in the port of Sagunto. It now seeks to expand to multiple other Spanish ports.

By Erik Hoffmann

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