Europe’s delivered LNG and TTF prices diverge

The price of the continent’s spot LNG trade does not exactly match the benchmark

Even the most casual LNG market observer will be familiar with the trend of Europe as a so-called ‘sink’ for cargoes—receiving the surplus when supply outstrips demand in Asia and other demand centres and far fewer cargoes when the global market is more balanced. But what is perhaps less well-understood is that, as Desmond Wong, managing editor for the European and Atlantic Basin at price reporting agency (PRA) Platts told the Petroleum Economist LNG-to-Power Emea forum in early November, the price of spot LNG traded and delivered into Europe is not the same as the region’s benchmark Dutch TTF price—be it LNG arriving in the Mediterranean or even northwest European terminals in France, Belgi