Europe’s Natural-Gas Crunch Sparks Global Battle for Tankers

Charter rates for existing tankers for mid-September and mid-November are $105,250 per day, according to Spark Commodities data.

That's 64% higher from the current daily fare of $64,000, and 124% higher than year-ago prices. The pool of currently available vessels has been squeezed because traders are booking the tankers well ahead of time to handle the volume of natural gas deliveries, per the report.

With dealers booking as many liquefied natural gas tankers as possible, South Korea, the world's biggest producer of the ships, can't take on any new orders until 2027, research firm Rystad Energy estimates.

But that's also raised the price to build new tankers.

The cost to build a new ship is approaching $240 million, Rystad Energy data shows, up from $190 million a year ago.

What's more, some charter prices for so-called floating storage, which are usually converted former tankers, has jumped to $200,000 a day, more than double the cost at the start of 2021.

Meanwhile, natural gas prices in Europe climbed 19% Monday to reach a fresh record. Russia's Gazprom announced a three-day maintenance on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline at the end the month, though the news has raised fears that flows will halt altogether after the pause.