Pricewatch | 18 Apr 2023 | Gas Matters Today

European natural gas closed neutral on Monday, with cold weather forecasts and ongoing short-term supply issues cushioned by abundant stock levels.

“Cooler weather forecasts and short-term supply issues prevented the market from falling further, despite the overall bearish situation with high storages and declining demand,” Energi Danmark explained in its morning report.

TTF saw a 0.6% fall to USD 13.16/MMBtu, while NBP declined by a mere 0.2% to USD 12.20/MMBtu. JKM remained flat at USD 12.59/MMBtu.

Meanwhile, Norway’s North Sea grid operator Gassco said that the ongoing strike action has delayed scheduled maintenance at the Troll A platform and the Kollsnes onshore plant that processes the gas from the Troll field.

The strike action means that annual maintenance due to take place at the platform on 18-22 April, curtailing exports by some 35 MMcm/d, has been cancelled.

In the US, Henry Hub prices continued rising. The front-month contract on Monday saw a 7.6% surge to USD 2.28/MMBtu. This came as weather trended cooler for late April, providing support to an abundantly supplied market that is also seeing a surge in LNG demand.

Looking ahead to the EIA’s storage report, early estimates expect an injection in the mid-60 Bcf to low 70 Bcf.

Front-month futures and indexes at last close with day-on-day changes (click to enlarge): Time references based on London GMT. Brent, WTI, NBP, TTF and EU CO2 data from ICE. Henry Hub, JKM and API2 data from CME. Prices in USD/MMBtu based on exchange rates at last market close. All monetary values rounded to nearest whole cent/penny. Text and graphic copyright © Gas Strategies, all rights.