Connect to Spark via multiple methods

To save you time and effort, we’ve built multiple options for you to integrate our data into your systems.

Excel Add-in
Excel Add-in
Spark API
Spark API
Spark Webhooks
Spark Webhooks
Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI
ZEMA™
ZEMA™
Morningstar
Morningstar
Enverus
Enverus
Excel Add-in Excel Add-in

Retrieve Spark prices directly from within your Excel sheet.

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Spark API Spark API

Integrate with your systems directly via our API.
Automatically update forward curves, get additional prices for marking positions, bolster risk management systems and use the Spark prices to support analysis. No more manual downloads required and designed for the future.

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Spark Webhooks Spark Webhooks

Get the latest price information as they are released automatically via our Webhooks API.
Benefits include getting the latest prices as they are released and receiving an updated price when there’s a price correction.

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Power BI Power BI

Retrieve Spark prices into Power BI

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3rd-Party Connectors

Retrieve our prices via our 3rd-party connectors.
Available to Spark Premium subscribers. 3rd Party Connectors may apply additional costs.

ZEMA™ ZEMA™
Morningstar Morningstar
Enverus Enverus

Frequently Asked Questions

Firstly, you need an account with us. Any existing Spark accounts within your organisation can be used or you can also create a new account set up as a developer (which doesn't count towards number of nominated Spark Premium accounts).
For Premium plan users:
Navigate to “Contract” > “Data integrations” > “Spark API” on the sidebar menu and follow the steps in this page to access our API.

For Basic plan users: Download button Click on the download button and select “Download with our API”. Follow the steps in this page to access our API.

All Spark users have basic access which means that you can access the SparkS price for free but with a limited dataset.

To access the SparkFo, historical data and wider data sets, users must have premium access which applies on an organisation level. Please get in touch if you'd like more detailed information.

As our API evolves, we will ensure that the older versions of the endpoints remain available to limit any changes on your side. We'll make sure you have enough time to move to the latest version.
The data available via the API is linked to your organisation. This is to ensure that people changes are easier to manage in the future. Additional users can be added to ensure the right teams and people have access to the information and each organisation has a secure, unique token.
The information available via the API is linked to your permission status. Unlimited access to historical data and full forward curves is only available to those with Premium access. Get in touch to find out more.
Yes, your data is secure. Spark uses a HTTPS over TLS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure) as a secured, bidirectional tunnel for communication and OAuth2 as authorization framework.

Rate limiting of the API is primarily on per-customer basis — or more accurately described, per user access token. Following limits are currently the default setting:

  • Throttling (requests per second): 50 req/sec
  • Burst (bucket size): 200
  • Quota (requests per day): 1000 req/day

You can request an increase of these limits. Please contact us directly via contact@sparkcommodities.com and describe your scenario.

Either analysts with previous API experience or your IT teams should be comfortable with this. We've designed our API to make it as quick and easy as possible. We are also always available to help if needed.

Excel Add-in

Overview

This guide is intended to get you set up with our latest Excel Add-in. This is the version that replaced our older VBA Excel add-in.

The Spark Excel add-in is supported for the following Excel versions: - Microsoft Excel 2013, Microsoft Excel 2016 Microsoft Excel 2019, Excel 365 MSO 64 bits and Excel 365 MSO.

1) Installation

All users are encouraged to install the add-in from AppSource (Section 1.1), the official Microsoft store for Excel add-ins.

However, there may be some organisations who block their users from installing from AppSource, which we then provide alternative sideloading methods to install our Excel add-in:

Installation Environment Recommended Method Fallback Method
Windows installation Section 1.1 Section 1.3
Mac installation Section 1.1 Section 1.4
Office 365 Online (web browser) Section 1.2 - not applicable -

1.1) AppSource

If you use Excel installed on Windows/MacOS:

  1. If you have the previous Spark Excel add-in, uninstall it, shown in Section 2.
  2. Go to AppSource to install onto your account.
  3. “Get it now”
  4. “Open in Excel”
  5. Open Excel, you may need to “Trust this add-in”. Login to Spark using your https://app.sparkcommodities.com/ credentials.

1.2) Microsoft Office Online

If you use Excel on your web browser and have download permissions from Microsoft Office Online

  1. Login to your online office account:

  2. Open blank sheet, navigate to Insert -> Add-ins.

  3. Search Store for “Spark Commodities” and add

  4. This will launch the add-in. Login to Spark using your https://app.sparkcommodities.com/ credentials.

1.3) Windows fallback

If you use Excel installed on Windows and don’t have download permissions from AppSource/Microsoft Office Online:

This installation will show you how to 1) create a folder to house the Spark add-in download, 2) instruct Excel to read the add-in, and 3) Insert the add-in to excel.

  1. If you have the previous Spark Excel add-in, uninstall it, shown in section 2.

  2. Download the Spark manifest .xml file here. You might need to right click and ‘save as…’ or ‘save link as…’.

  3. Move the manifest .xml file into a folder

  1. Go to “Properties” of this folder

  1. Go to sharing tab, and click on share.

6. Ensure the person who will use it is owner or is added with read/write permissions and click share
7. Make a note of the file path for use later.
8. Open excel and go to File -> Options
9. In trust center, click on ‘Trust Center Settings’

  1. Go to ‘Trusted Add-in Catalogs’ and Input the saved file path of the file you obtained in step 6.
  2. Add catalog and tick ‘show in menu’
  3. Create a new registration entry for the downloaded manifest .xml file. To do this, search for the Notepad application (txt file) on your computer, and insert the following text:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\WEF\TrustedCatalogs{-random-GUID-here-}]

“Id”="{-random-GUID-here-}"

“Url”="\\-share-\-folder-"

“Flags”=dword:00000001

  1. Replace the two “-random-GUID-here-” with a GUID code you can generate here (click “Generate some GUIDs!”).

Also replace -share-\-folder- with the folder location from number 6, but edit all single “\” into double “\”, as below:

The final text will be something like:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\WEF\TrustedCatalogs{841abd20-a6b8-4a72-898b-df0a7827ecXX}]

“Id”=“{841abd20-a6b8-4a72-898b-df0a7827ecXX}”

“Url”=“\\DESKTOP-QCPADFN\Users\edjar\OneDrive\Desktop\Spark Add-in”

“Flags”=dword:00000001

  1. Save this file as “TrustNetworkShareCatalog.reg”

  2. Double click the file and run it. You may need to allow/accept some pop ups.

  3. Now to include the add-in in Excel. Restart Excel and navigate to Insert - My Add-ins

  4. Under “Shared Folder” select Spark Commodities and click add

  5. This will launch the add-in. Login to Spark using your https://app.sparkcommodities.com/ credentials.

Installation adapted from: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/testing/create-a-network-shared-folder-catalog-for-task-pane-and-content-add-ins

1.4) MacOS fallback

If you use Excel installed on MacOS and don’t have download permissions from AppSource/Microsoft Office Online

Prerequisites for Office on Mac

  • A Mac running OS X v10.10 “Yosemite” or later with Office on Mac installed.
  • Excel on Mac version 15.19 (160206).
  1. If you have the previous Spark Excel add-in, uninstall it, shown in section 2.
  2. Download the Spark manifest .xml file here.
  3. Go to the following filepath. If the wef folder doesn’t exist on your computer, create it by right clicking and then creating the folder.

/Users/[your Mac username]/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Documents/wef


  1. Copy the downloaded Spark manifest file to this wef folder.
  2. Open Excel, and then open a sheet. You may need to restart Excel if it’s already running.
  3. In Excel, choose Insert > My Add-ins (▼ drop-down menu), and then choose SparkCommodities
    1. Note: Be sure to click the ▼ arrow on the right, not the My Add-ins button
  4. Verify that the Spark add-in is displayed in Excel under the Home ribbon.
  5. Click on the newly added Spark button to show the Spark pane. Login to Spark using your https://app.sparkcommodities.com/ credentials.

2) Uninstalling previous add-in

  1. Uninstall by going to File -> Options -> Add-ins. Click “Go”.

  2. Then make sure the previous Spark add-in is un-ticked. Then click “OK”.

3) Using the Excel Add-in

This article helps you get logged in to the Spark Excel Add-in and quickly download Spark data.

  1. Logging in: Once the add-in is successfully installed, click the Login button on the Spark ribbon and login with your existing email and password that you use on your Spark account. If you do not have a Spark account, then you can create one by clicking the “Create your Spark account”. It will direct you to the registration page.

  2. Product Selection: Once you log in and subject to your Spark subscription you will have 3 choices which represent the different Spark data products:

    1. LNG Freight
    2. LNG Freight FFA
    3. LNG Basis (will we have LNG Basis Financial as separate?)

Select the relevant product data set.

  1. Data Display:
    1. Select the relevant data/contracts for display.
    2. Select the Price Unit
    3. Select the Price Release Type Click “Insert data into selected cell”.

Please note this will depend on the cell that has been previously selected.

  1. Example output

4) Troubleshooting

4.1) Legacy VBA

If you use Windows and the installation methods above do not work, you can revert to the previous Excel add-in:

Our legacy VBA Excel Add-in can be useful considering operating system constraints or the extra caveats installing the excel add-in via sideloading. Unfortunately this method of add-in installation is not supported currently on MacOS.

  1. Download the Excel Add-In file here and save the add-in
  2. file in a suitable location. The latest version of the add-in is v1.3.1 from 09 May 2022.
  3. Choose File > Options within Excel

  4. From Options, choose Add-ins, Manage ‘Excel Add-ins’ -> Go.
  5. Within the Add-ins window, choose ‘Browse’ and browse to the location of the add-in file. Make sure to check the “Spark Excel Addon” to enable it.

To ensure the Spark Add-in remains in your Excel Ribbon take the following steps:

  1. Open the Trusted Locations menu. File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings.
  2. Go to Trusted Locations and press the ‘Add new location…’ button.
  3. Click the ‘Browse…’ button. Navigate to the folder that contains your add-in files and press OK. If your add-ins are organized in subfolders then click the “Subfolders of this location are also trusted” checkbox.
  4. Press OK, then press OK again on the Trust Center Window. Close and re-open Excel.
  5. ‘Unblock’ the Excel Add-in by right clicking it in the folder you saved it in and choose ‘Properties’ and check ‘Unblock’.

4.2) Data availability

Data availability depends on your permission rights.

Spark naming conventions for the following criteria are available via the Spark API.

  • Contracts Groups
  • Contracts
  • Price units
  • Release date: date of assessment
  • Contract type: front month, forward
  • Calendar month: delivery month
  • Period start: first day of delivery window
  • Period end: last day of delivery window
  • Prices: Spark price, You