The first LNG freight swap to be settled against the Baltic Exchange's new LNG-fuelled spot assessments has been concluded.
Clarksons Platou Futures FFA broker Christian Greenop said the trade was concluded against BLNG2g, which is the assessment for a return voyage from the US Gulf to Continent, on 7 June.
Greenop said the trade was for the first quarter of 2022, with 10 charter days per month on the contract that traded at $75,000 per day for the period.
He described the rate as “a reasonably big number” and said people are “bullish” in the current market.
The broker declined to name the counter-parties involved, saying they had asked for confidentiality.
But he said this is the first time one of the three new LNG-fuelled assessments had traded on CME Clearport.
Two more contracts have since been concluded.
Greenop said the relatively new rate assessments were designed to give a better reflection of the physical market.
The Singapore Exchange (SGX)-controlled Baltic Exchange added the three new assessments for LNG carriers using LNG as their primary fuel rather than fuel oil or marine gas oil in March.
The rate assessments are given twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Alongside BLNG2g, BLNG1g is based on a voyage from Australia to Japan, with BLNG3g on a trip from the US Gulf to Japan.
They are based on a vessel moving at 17 knots on 210-cbm of LNG per day in a laden condition and 16 knots on 190-cbm of LNG per day in ballast with a cargo boil-off rate of 0.1%.
Currently, the three assessments trade alongside the original BLNG1, BLNG2 and BLNG3, which are based on LNG carriers burning very low-sulphur fuel oil.
These were listed on CME Clearport on 23 December 2019.
But it is anticipated that trades will eventually shift over to the gas-fuelled assessments.
The Baltic Exchange has previously talked about moving its LNG rate assessments over to a daily index.
