Euro TTF gas holds gains on LNG shortfall concerns, Asia prices firm
Quantum Commodity Intelligence – European natural gas prices consolidated the firm two-month upward trend the week ending 14 June, underpinned by global LNG shortfalls, although high inventories capped any further upside.
Front-month July TTF futures were trading at around €35.50/MWh late afternoon Friday, with prices now up by more than 40% since early April, albeit just off recent highs of €38/MWh.
Maintenance at Chevron's Australian Wheatstone regassification plant was the latest hiccup in global LNG supplies, coming after last month's glitch at the Gorgon LNG plant, also operated by Chevron Australia.
"In the latest setback for global supplies, Chevron signalled that repairs on its Wheatstone LNG platform will take longer than initially expected," said ANZ commodity strategist Daniel Hynes, adding that the loadings were halted on 10 June and maintenance could last for most of the month.
Wheatstone has a capacity of around 8.9 million mt per annum, which combined with Gorgon's 15.6 mtpa makes up around 6% of global supplies.
The latest outage also lifted the JKM (Japan-Korea Marker) LNG benchmark to fresh 2024 highs of $13/mmBtu for August delivery, while key winter contracts were above $14/mmBtu.
Meanwhile, Austria's OMV has warned that German utility Uniper's successful damages claim against Gazprom could risk disrupting supplies to central Europe this winter, with Austria still highly reliant on Moscow for additional winter gas supplies.
For now, Europe shows no signs of stress with storage facilities 72% full and expected to comfortably reach over 90% by early Q4.
But in an increasingly globalised gas market, reports that the US Gulf Sabine Pass terminal will go under maintenance this month also provided support for European and Asian markets.
Reports of lower feed gas flows to the Sabine Pass plant saw US natural gas prices ease off from this week's five-month highs of around $3.15/mmBtu, trading at $2.91/mmBtu late-morning Eastern Time.
