Seaborne LNG deliveries to European destinations, including Turkey, eased 1% week on week to 3.8bcm last week but December is on track for a record monthly high, Kpler ship tracking data showed on Tuesday, according to Montel.
Around 50 vessels, carrying almost 4.7bcm, are in transit or waiting to discharge at European ports, although the final destinations and volumes could change, the Kpler data showed.
More than 16.3bcm were imported in the month to date, or 4.2bcm per week, almost 11% higher than the same period in November.
Europe’s LNG supply in December is set to exceed 19bcm, smashing the previous record of 16.1bcm seen in November, as the region ramps up its replacement of Russian pipeline supply.
The volume of LNG floating off European shores has tumbled to its lowest since August, with 0.35bcm presently floating in four vessels that have waited for at least five days, according to Kpler data.
Competition from Asia is increasing, with prices for front-month delivery of LNG at a premium to benchmark gas prices on the Dutch TTF hub, which have tumbled amid mild weather in Europe.
The Japan/Korea Marker for February delivery settled on Monday at USD 28.12/MMbtu, compared with the equivalent contract on the TTF of USD 26.73/MMbtu.
However, European prices offer a premium on Asian ones until the end of 2023.
Asian markets are also tightening due to an unplanned outage at the 4.9bcm per annum Prelude FLNG terminal in Australia because of a fire last week.
Meanwhile, the second biggest LNG export terminal in the US, Freeport (20bcm/year), delayed its restart by another month to mid-January at the earliest, operator Freeport LNG said on Friday.
European LNG storage levels jumped week on week and were last seen 14 percentage points higher at 72% of capacity, Gas Infrastructure Europe data showed.
