Gas Summary at European Close: TTF Trades Higher

TTF front month has softened from its intra-day high of €36.21/MWh but remains stronger on the day. Upside is coming from increased shipping risks following a Houthi attack in the Red Sea targeting an energy shipment.

• TTF JAN 24 up 2.6% at 35.6€/MWh
• TTF Q1 24 up 2.3% at 35.85€/MWh
• Two missiles fired from Yemen’s Houthi rebel territory missed a tanker loaded with jet fuel near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Wednesday according o AP News reports citing US officials.
• Above normal temperatures are still forecast for NW and central Europe throughout December.
• European natural gas storage was down to 90.43% full on Dec 11 according to GIE data compared to the seasonal five year average of 80.1%.
• Withdrawals were down to just over 3,600GWh/d on Dec 11 from a high of nearly 6,750GWh/d on Dec 4.
• Pipeline supplies into Europe from Norway are today up to 353.1mcm/d and just below the high of the year of 359mcm/d seen in late November.
• Libyan natural gas flows to Italy will be halted until Friday due to an unplanned maintenance at the Mellitah oil and gas treatment plant, after which exports are expected to gradually resume, Eni said, cited by Montel.
• LNG stockpiles held by Japanese utilities increased by 16% on the week to 2.54mn tons as of 10 December, the highest level since May, according to data released by the trade ministry, cited by Bloomberg.
• LNG capacity utilization rates at Chinese facilities continued the downtrend last week and rates among 246 LNG plants fell to 52.6% on average for the week ending 7 December, down by 0.93 percentage points on the week, OilChem data showed.
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