TTF Resumes Bearish Trend as LNG Imports Stay Strong

European TTF natural gas has opened lower once again to extend the bearish trend. Initially yesterday saw some support pushing front month up to 33€/MWh on signs of increasing demand in Asia and limited Norwegian supply before reversing with ongoing strong LNG imports and healthy storage.

• TTF JUN 23 down -2.7% at 31.11€/MWh
• Strong LNG net import supplies into Europe continue to weigh on the price with sendout holding steady and averaging around 450mcm/d since 12 May.
• European gas storage injections are still lagging slightly below the five year average level with European gas storage up to 64.31% full on 16 May according to GIE data compared to the five year average of 45.5%.
• Imports from Norway are today at 290mcm/d with seasonal maintenance works at numerous fields and processing plants until June. Norwegian gas exports are also restricted by an outage at Hammerfest LNG outage until 27 May.
• The latest weather forecast still shows the current below normal temperatures in western and central Europe this week recovering above normal over the coming weekend with wind generation also edging higher.
• Gas transit flows through Ukraine are today at 40.6mcm/d and Algeria gas flow to Italy at Mazara are up to 84.97mcm/d.