JKM settled $16.81/MMBtu on 15 July, and TTF's 15 July close converts to roughly $17.4/MMBtu, so the JKM-TTF arb flipped sign: TTF now trades about $0.6/MMBtu above the JKM-equivalent, a reversal from the $1.59/MMBtu JKM premium logged on 5 July1. JKM is the S&P Global Platts benchmark for spot LNG delivered into Northeast Asia; when it sits below the European hub, a cargo owner earns more selling into Rotterdam than into Tokyo. That is the textbook trigger for a westbound diversion.
None has come. The standing tally of eleven Europe-to-Asia diversions since late February remains unreversed, and no July source names a single Atlantic cargo turning back toward Europe. A sign flip is necessary but not sufficient: a diversion has to cover the round-trip freight differential, the extra boil-off, and the cost of breaking an already-sold Asian slot. A two-session spread of about $0.6/MMBtu clears none of that.
The reroute may be lagging rather than absent. Tankers committed to Asian buyers cannot reverse on a two-day signal, and freight lag would resolve within a week or so. But the alternative reading is that the rally chased a toll headline rather than a lost volume, in which case the arb never had molecules to move in the first place. This is the paper market and the physical market disagreeing in real time, and the ships are the harder vote to fake.
