LNG Shipping Market Primed for Growth

By Jonathan Saul
Friday, March 5, 2021

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships are set to receive an earnings boost from restocking demand after colder conditions drove a scramble for supplies and record high freight rates, a top LNG tanker player said.

A cold snap in Europe and Asia in January and in North America last month increased heating demand, prompting prices to jump in several markets, while inventories fell.

"You need to replenish stocks because of the cold northern hemisphere winter in both Asia and in Europe. So, we think this is going to add to tonne miles," GasLog Partners chief executive Paul Wogan told Reuters.

Tonne miles are an indicator of shipping demand, measuring transported cargo volume multiplied by distance.

LNG tanker rates in January hit record highs of over $320,000 a day, with some charters concluded at around $350,000 a day, estimates from shipping sources showed.

Average earnings have fallen to around $20,000 a day on some routes, Baltic Exchange data showed.

Wogan said despite more tankers being delivered in 2021, rates could be "somewhere between $5,000 a day better than they were at last year".

"We think there's going to be about 20 million tonnes more LNG moved this year than last year," he said, adding that much of the additional production would come from U.S. producers.

Data from broker EA Gibson, based on AIS ship tracking, showed 14 LNG vessels had already been delivered this year with a further 44 scheduled to hit the water in 2021, which will add to the existing LNG fleet of 593 tankers.

Wogan declined to comment further on the agreement by subsidiary company GasLog Ltd to be taken private by BlackRock , the world's largest asset manager.

Gaslog Ltd's chairman Peter Livanos said last week the deal would allow "for access to growth capital currently absent in the public equity markets". 

(Editing by Barbara Lewis)

Categories: LNG Carriers LNG Tankers

Related Stories

Hanwha Ocean Marks Entry into Deepwater Drilling Market with First Drillship

Fire at Petronas Gas Pipeline in Malaysia Sends 63 to Hospital

Argentina YPF to Shed Offshore Exploration Projects

ORE Catapult and Japan’s FLOWRA to Jointly Advance Floating Wind

Second Hai Long Substation Heads to Project Site Offshore Taiwan

Santos Hires Weststar-GAP for Timor-Leste Offshore Helicopter Services

Sunda Energy Starts Environmental Survey for Timor-Leste Oil and Gas Field

Abu Dhabi's NMDC Group Gets $1.1B Subsea Gas Pipeline Job in Taiwan

Saipem’s Castorone Vessel on Its Way to Türkiye’s Largest Gas Field

The Five Trends Driving Offshore Oil & Gas in 2025

Current News

Chuditch Gas Field Up for Summer Drilling Ops as Sunda Reshapes Ownership Structure

EnQuest Bags Two Production Sharing Contracts off Indonesia

Hanwha Drilling’s Tidal Action Drillship En Route to Petrobras’ Roncador Field

China's ENN, Zhenhua Oil Ink LNG Supply Deals with ADNOC

MODEC Wins ExxonMobil Guyana’s Hammerhead FPSO Contract

India Stretches Bids Deadline for 13 Offshore Deep-Sea Mineral Blocks

Indonesia Awards Oil and Gas Blocks to Boost Reserves

Sapura Energy Nets $22.6M in Offshore Support Vessel Contracts

CNOOC Puts Into Production New Oil Field in South China Sea

Sunda Energy Starts Environmental Consultation for Chuditch-2 Well Drilling Plans

Subscribe for AOG Digital E‑News

AOG Digital E-News is the subsea industry's largest circulation and most authoritative ENews Service, delivered to your Email three times per week

https://accounts.newwavemedia.com