Gas Prices Rise As Strike Action Looms Again In Australia

European gas prices rose 5% on Friday to EUR 38 just off the intraday high of EUR 38.63, on news of possible renewed strike action in Australia. But they had trended down earlier in the week and so finished down 9.2% in October to date driven by a mild autumn and lacklustre industrial demand. North Asian prices are down 3.8% over the week.

• LNG supply issues have caused volatility lately. The start of October saw the maintenance-impacted flows from Norway improve to their highest since August.
• The dispute at Chevron’s Australian facilities in the North West shelf looks to have rekindled with industrial action likely to resume. Workers are saying that the company has gone back on the deal agreed in September. Unions have said that they will file another notice of protected industrial action on Monday, according to the AFR.
• A dispute between Austria and Romania may impact the development of the joint Austrian/Romanian owned Black Sea Neptun Deep gasfield off Romania’s coast. Austria opposes Romania’s entry into the Schengen border-free area and as a result Romania maintains its right to veto private offshore gas contracts in “emergency situations”, according to the FT. The 2027 production date for Neptun Deep is also being threatened by the war in the Ukraine.