Roman Kazmin

LONDON (ICIS)--ICIS has added daily charter rate assessments for Two-stroke LNG vessels to reflect the growing importance of the market’s most efficient carriers. LNG shipowners plan to replace more TFDE-propelled tonnage with more efficient Two-Stroke vessels going forwards. Higher carrying capacity and optimal utilisation rates are behind the shifts in the LNG fleet, where Two-stroke charters can command a premium of 10-20% compared with TFDE-propelled ships.

Egypt’s LNG buy tender for 2017-2018 presents an opportunity for traders without access to their own production volumes to take a potentially rewarding short-term position in the market. Egypt is viewed as a buyer with both political and credit risk, which means that some global majors or risk-sensitive trading houses based in Japan are unlikely to participate in the process directly.

Construction has been completed at India’s 5mtpa Mundra LNG terminal in Gujarat but the commissioning process could be postponed because the facility is expected to close over the course of the monsoon season from June to October. The project, led by India’s independent energy infrastructure developer Adani, is also suffering from the lack of a gas pipeline connecting the facility to the target market which will make for reduced operations until late 2019 at the earliest.