Gas Summary at European Close: TTF Rebounds

Front month TTF has rebounded after yesterday’s losses but has eased back from an intra-day high of €34.625/MWh. Risks to LNG supplies from the Red Sea disruption are weighed against the healthy near-term supplies and muted European demand.

• TTF JAN 24 up 3% at 33.54€/MWh
• TTF Q1 24 up 2.7% at 33.74€/MWh
• The EU is taking proactive measures ahead of the expected halt to Russian gas transit through Ukraine at the end of 2024 according to EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson.
• Above normal temperatures in NW and central Europe are expected to continue until the end of December while Germany is expected to see record wind power output on Thursday.
• European natural gas storage was down to 88.35% full on Dec 18 according to GIE data compared to the seasonal five-year average of 76.9% with below normal withdrawal rates since Dec 8.
• Pipeline supplies into Europe from Norway remain strong up at 356.5mcm/d today.
• European LNG sendout increased to 457mcm/d on Dec 18 compared to an average of 424mcm/d so far in December.
• LNG stockpiles held by Japanese utilities increased by 4.74% on the week to 2.65mn tons as of 17 December, the highest level since January, according to data released by the trade ministry.
• Japan’s imports of LNG in November totalled 5.33m mt, according to trade statistics released by Japan’s Finance Ministry.
• Adnoc announced it will supply at least 1mtpa of LNG to a subsidiary of China’s Enn for the duration of 15 years, the firm said in a statement.
• MNI Commodity Weekly: Red Sea Attacks Bring Shipping into the Spotlight -Full piece here: https://enews.marketnews.com/ct/x/pjJscQWMkO0I6a9kIBlwTg~k1zZ8KXr-kA8x6nCXpGlptIPjL4SdA