MARKET INSIGHT ?Europe Prices Hold Firm

摘要

European prompt gas prices have held firm this summer, in sharp contrast to the sagging US market, partly because Russian and Norwegian term gas is still priced at over $8.50 per million Btu, even with oil linkage watered down by partial indexation to spot pricing (see table below). Supply cuts resulting from heavy planned maintenance on Norwegian infrastructure and fields ?plus a few unscheduled outages elsewhere ?helped support day-ahead gas at the UK National Balancing Point (NBP) and Dutch TTF hub this week at around $6.50/MMBtu, whereas US Henry Hub is testing $4 (p2). Before LNG imports picked up around mid- month, UK prompt gas was close to $7.50/MMBtu.