<\/p>\n
Asian LNG buyers have pulled at least seven Atlantic Basin cargoes away from Europe since the war in the Middle East began on Feb. 28, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data(opens in a new tab), driven by a widening Northeast Asia price premium and improved netbacks for eastbound flows.<\/p>\n
Cargoes in the Atlantic Basin sold on both spot and long-term contracts appeared to divert from Europe to Asia in response to the shifting market dynamics, with the Platts JKM benchmark prices for spot LNG delivered into Northeast Asia reaching a three-year high of $25.393\/million British thermal unit on March 3.<\/p>\n
Netbacks for US LNG spot volumes to end-user markets have increased significantly since the conflict began, underscoring how the supply disruption in the Middle East has increased the value of both US cargoes and tanker capacity. That is particularly true in Asia, which faces the most immediate impact from constrained flows through the Strait of Hormuz as the largest buyer of volumes transiting the waterway that accounts for about 20% of global supply.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe widening spread is incentivizing cargoes to divert from Europe to Asia, but it\u2019s also accounting for the higher shipping rate,\u201d S&P Global Energy CERA LNG analyst Ross Wyeno said.<\/p>\n
The differential between landed netbacks for FOB US cargoes into Asia and the Platts JKM assessment was $4\/million British thermal units on March 10, down from $10\/MMBtu the day prior, and compared with $1.32\/MMBtu for Europe on March 10, highlighting stronger netbacks and margins for US cargoes delivered east.<\/p>\n
Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, assessed Atlantic tri-fuel diesel electric ship rates at $125,000\/day and two-stroke carrier rates at $202,500\/d on March 10. That\u2019s a more than threefold increase compared to Feb. 27, the day before US-Israeli strikes began, but rates have come down from a peak of more than five times the pre-conflict values reached on March 5.<\/p>\n Changing course<\/strong><\/p>\n The first vessel to divert on March 2 was the TotalEnergies-chartered BW Brussels, which loaded in The Bonny Inshore Terminal in Nigeria and changed course toward the Cape of Good Hope rather than Europe.<\/p>\n Days later, two more vessels \u2014 the Cheniere-chartered Clean Mistral, loaded from its Corpus Christi facility, and the QatarEnergy LNG chartered Simsimah, loaded at Venture Global\u2019s Plaquemines LNG plant in Louisiana \u2014 both appeared to divert from Europe to Asia.<\/p>\n On March 6, the Shell chartered vessel Pan Americas, after having loaded in the Bonny Inshore Terminal in Nigeria was seen diverting from Europe to Asia.<\/p>\n On March 7, a third QatarEnergy LNG vessel named Umm Ghuwailina, loaded from Freeport LNG in Texas, was seen diverting a cargo loaded at Venture Global\u2019s Plaquemines LNG plant in Louisiana from Belgium to China, which would be the first US cargo imported by China in over a year, if ultimately delivered there.<\/p>\n Also on March 7, the Elisa Ardea chartered by France\u2019s EDF appeared to divert from the Netherlands to Japan after loading from the Freeport LNG terminal in Texas.<\/p>\n \u201cJapan and China are relatively healthy, China is still offloading volumes it can be a swing supplier if prices are right and that can help ease some pressure,\u201d an LNG trader said.<\/p>\n Platts assessed April JKM at $17.983\/MMBtu on March 11, down $1.087\/MMBtu, or 5.7%, from the previous day, reflecting weaker near-term demand.<\/p>\n \u201cSome players can divert to Asia but freight is still super high, so unless you have the end-user demand there ready to bite the bait then cargoes could still float in the Atlantic,\u201d the trader said.<\/p>\n All of the observed Atlantic Basin cargoes to change course for Asia headed for the Cape of Good Hope.<\/p>\n While freight rates via the Panama Canal to Asia appear more competitive, market sources told Platts that limited slot availability\u2014allocated through reservations, lotteries and bidding\u2014may at times make passage challenging for spot cargoes.<\/p>\n Cargo swaps<\/strong><\/p>\n Several of the diversions in the Atlantic are likely cargo swaps by US long-term contract holders rather than spot cargo sales, an Atlantic\u2011based market analyst said.<\/p>\n Beyond basin-to-basin diversions, several other cargo swaps have also been observed, including the Petronas-chartered Puteri Sarawak, which diverted on March 4 from South Korea to Thailand after loading at the LNG Canada facility in Kitimat, British Columbia.<\/p>\n \u201cTaiwan spot demand is good; did not hear much movement from China, Korea or Japan so far,\u201d said an Asia-based source.<\/p>\n Another cargo diversion involving Asia was seen with the Diamond Gas Sakura vessel, which loaded at the Cameron LNG terminal in the US and was rerouted on March 8 from Japan to Taiwan.<\/p>\n The diversions come as market participants said delivered LNG prices into Northwest Europe need to compete with Asia to retain cargoes in the basin ahead of the April refilling season and amid low storage levels, or risk losing further volumes.<\/p>\n \u201cEurope needs to stockpile, so at one point they will pay whatever price is shown,\u201d an Atlantic Basin trader previously told Platts. <\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" … s also accounting for the higher shipping<\/span> rate,\u00e2\u0080\u009d S&P … can divert to Asia but freight<\/span> is still super high, … Cape of Good Hope. While freight<\/span> rates via the Panama Canal … make passage challenging for spot cargoes. Cargo<\/span> swaps Several of the diversions in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.hellenicshippingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/123202535.jpg\")
Source: Platts<\/a> <\/p>\n