On June 6, The Wall Street Journal published a front-page article on the new global market for natural gas. The lede anecdote referenced the Rioja Knutsen, a Spanish-flagged LNG tanker (IMO: 9721736), that suddenly changed course, making a decision to travel to Mexico instead of Portugal.
With Genscape's Vesseltracker™, any customers who were actively monitoring the long-term track of the Rioja Knutsen would have been able to see this change in destination and ETA in near-real-time. In this case, the tanker likely decided to change course because prices for its LNG were more favorable in Mexico than in Portugal, and customers would have leveraged this insight in their trading decisions for that day.
The Rioja Knutsen is chartered to (GNF) Gas Natural Fenosa of Spain. GNF holds 3.5 MTPA at Cheniere Sabine Train 2. GNF, like Shell, is a portfolio trader and has a number of delivery destinations for LNG cargos. U.S. LNG facilities like Sabine are free of destination clauses, and this freedom allows a capacity holder like GNF to send cargos to any point they choose in order to optimize their shipping portfolio. This delivery freedom includes changing destination en route to best market netback, and to adjust their shipping fleet in real-time, accordingly.
Genscape Vesseltracker provides customers with visibility into current and historical vessel location. In combination with Genscape's North American LNG Supply and Demand Service, traders, analysts, and other market players can better prepare for changes in the rising global LNG industry by leveraging predictive analytics for every LNG vessel journey around the world. Genscape provides a comprehensive picture of the costs associated with purchasing gas for export, which can be critical in this competitive landscape. To learn more about Genscape's North American LNG Supply and Demand Service, please click here.