Gas prices continue to fluctuate within a narrow range
Gas prices dropped a little on Tuesday as the market continued to fluctuate within the narrow range established over the past few weeks.
In morning trade, the market continued its rally from the previous session where significant gains were posted across all contracts. The afternoon however, brought a swift change in direction with most contracts falling (and closing) below Tuesday’s levels.
The overall bearish sentiment could have been attributed to the continuation of normalised flows via the Norway-UK Langeled pipeline. Unplanned maintenance at both the Visund and Ekofisk fields totalling 21.4mcm in the Norwegian North Sea failed to spook European gas hubs as this level of offline capacity pales in comparison to last months prolonged summertime maintenance that peaked at a staggering 176.91mcm and lingered for weeks.
At time same time, the current lacklustre LNG outlook likely served as a price floor for curve contracts. The latest shipping signals suggest that no vessels are expected to arrive at UK terminals over the next 7 day outlook amid increased demand in the US and competitive spot prices in Asia.
Prices have opened in positive territory this morning, with the Winter 24 front-season contract currently being offered circa 0.07p/kWh above its previous settlement at time of writing.
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