Gas prices ease as demand drops
Gas prices dropped again on Monday as a weaker demand outlook came into view.
Bearish sentiment was seemingly strongest at the front-end, with the July 24 front-month contract shedding a considerable 2.8p/therm (0.1p/kWh) when compared to Fridays close.
Forecasts of warmer weather over the next couple of weeks likely helped as the latest run of our 14-day model shows that demand has been revised down to only slightly above seasonal norms for the remainder of this week before flipping well below-average across week 26.
Furthermore, it’s possible that the continuation of steady Norwegian flows continued to instill confidence at European gas hubs. According to data from offshore operator Gassco, nominations into the UK’s Easington and St Fergus terminals totaled 60.9mcm for Mondays gas-day, this is almost 10 times more volume than the figure of 6.2mcm recorded for the same date last year.
Although the unplanned outage at Norway’s Visund field is expected to continue until 24th June, output at the Troll field has been accelerated beyond technical capacity to help reduce disruption in the meantime.
Elsewhere on the energy markets, the Brent Crude benchmark contract resumed its now 6-day rally, reaching its highest level since 30th April as a growing number of market participants feel that interest rates could soon start to fall in the US and Europe thus supporting greater oil consumption.
Gas prices have opened higher this morning, with the Winter 24 front-season contract currently being offered circa 0.5p/therm (0.017p/kWh) above its previous settlement, although many contracts have yet to trade at time of writing
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