LNG ship rates seen gaining on widening price gap through winter

Rates to ship liquefied natural gas are gaining as the gap between prices in Europe and Asia is set to widen throughout the winter, Bloomberg reports. A vessel was booked for 60 to 80 days at a daily cost of $120,000, according to Fearnley LNG, a shipbroker in Oslo. Asian prices for the fuel exceed $17 per million British thermal units and will stay high until winter demand ends, Rikard Vabo, an analyst at investment bank Fearnley Securities, said in an e- mailed report today.
Daily rates now at $124,000 will extend gains through February, Erik Nikolai Stavseth, an analyst at Arctic Securities ASA in Oslo, said in an e-mailed report. Traders are looking to charter the remaining ships available in the Atlantic region, while a lack of production outages also helps to keep the fleet busy, Fearnley’s Vabo said.