Fire shuts Norway's Asgard platform, sparks European gas prices rally

Quantum Commodity Intelligence – Equinor has halted natural gas production at the Asgard B semi-submersible platform after a fire broke out late Sunday evening, boosting European natural gas prices.

The forced closure of the gasfield output led to a drop in daily gas supplies to the UK and Europe, while uncertainty surrounds the likely restart date.

Asgard has a nameplate capacity just shy of 20 million cubic metres per day, gas grid operator Gassco data showed.

The shutdown resulted in an outage of gas production amounting to 19.8 million cubic metres per day with "uncertain duration and capacity consequence," Asgard's pipeline operator Gassco said in a regulatory filing.

Benchmark Dutch TTF prices have rallied strongly this week, in part due to the Asgard shutdown but also on the colder weather forecast for Europe following the unusually mild autumn temperatures.  

January TTF futures gained around 10% on Monday to close just above €120/MWh , extending the gains lae-afernoon Tuesday to around €130/MWh, a one-month high.

Likewise, benchmark UK NBP natural gas futures have rebounded from five-month lows of around 220 pence per therm (p/th) on Friday, trading close to 300 p/th by late Tuesday in London.

European prices were also boosted following uncertainty on the timeline for a restart of exports from the Freeport LNG terminal in Texas.

Equinor reportedly notified the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre of Southern Norway about the fire on the semisub which is located 200 kilometres off the coast of Trondelag and 50 kilometres south of Equinor's giant Heidrun oil and gas field in the Norwegian Sea.

Currently, there is no suggestion of sabotage, but last month Norway announced plans to boost protection for critical energy installations following recent sightings of unidentified drones offshore Norway and explosions on the Nord Stream Baltic pipeline.