BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 17. The total number of liquefied natural gas (LNG) export cargoes decreased by 1 percent m-o-m to 536 in January 2023, Trend reports with reference to the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).
In general, the number of LNG shipments have been on upward trend since 2019. The number of shipments in January 2023 reached the highest level at the start of any of the previous four years.
The largest number of LNG shipments during January 2023 accounted for Australia, the US and Qatar. Compared with one year ago, Algeria and Indonesia each delivered 5 more cargoes in January 2023.
The LNG spot charter rate for steam turbine carriers stood at 53,700 USD/day on average in January 2023, dropping by 48 percent compared to the previous month, while growing by 100 percent year-on-year.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, spot charter rates soared.
“This tightness in the market was attributed to European buyers purchasing cargoes as floating storage, for energy security as well as to resell at a higher price deeper into the winter season. Thereafter, as the winter season commenced, and gas began to be withdrawn from storage, these floating cargoes were able to be unloaded across European ports. This essentially freed up carriers, and the softening of charter rates was observed into December 2022 and January 2023. The average price of the leading shipping fuels in January 2023 was 610 USD/tonne, which was 7 percent higher than the previous month, but 5 percent lower y-o-y,” reads the GECF report.
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