Norwegian flows back after yesterdays unplanned outage

06 January 2022

Russian gas deliveries through the Mallnow entry point remained at zero

Russian gas deliveries through the Mallnow entry point remained at zero on Wednesday and this was the main driver for gas futures across Europe.  A slight supply deficit supported the NBP prompt early on, but this was recovered as a robust LNG send out of over 110MCM helped bring the GB gas system to equilibrium later on.  An outage at the Oseberg field was revealed to be the cause of the deficit and there were fears Norwegian supplies could be curtailed. The spot and day ahead products added 15.00p and 24.05p respectively despite the abundance of LNG available to the UK this week. Seven further deliveries are due over the coming days.  The front months averaged gains of just over 5.00p yesterday with February settling at 223.45p.

 Remaining contracts on the baseload power curve settled higher yesterday

The gains in gas prices along with outages supplied support to the baseload power market yesterday.  In France, EDF has reported the Chooz-2 reactor, which was due back in January, will be out of commission until mid-March. Power prices in France and Britain had started to ease in the afternoon but received a boost after the announcement, leaving February to close £25.00/MWh higher.  Remaining contracts on the baseload power curve settled an average of £6.00/MWh higher yesterday.  The day ahead settled higher also despite a forecast for wind generation to pick up from around 4.0GW to over 12.0GW today.

 Crude oil prices traded in a relatively tight range

Crude oil prices traded in a relatively tight range yesterday with Brent moving between $79.51 and $81.50 a barrel before settling at $80.80, up 80 cents a barrel on the day. The latest inventory report from the Energy Information Administration showed U.S. crude oil reserves fell for the sixth week running.  Stocks of U.S. crude declined by 2.1 million barrels over the last week, however there was a build of over 10.0 million barrels in distillate stocks, but this is being put down to the Omicron variant limiting travel over the holiday season. West Texas Intermediate for February delivery gained 86 cents a barrel to close at $77.85 a barrel.

GB gas system has opened in better shape this morning

The GB gas system has opened in better shape this morning with supplies forecast to run 7MCM long against today’s demand of 323MCM.  Norwegian flows look to be back after yesterdays unplanned outage with imports close to 100MCM expected today while Langeled is running close to full capacity at 74MCM.  The prompt has opened higher with the day ahead 7.95p higher in early trading while the spot has yet to post a trade today.  Near curve contracts on the NBP opened firmer but latest trades for February have seen the contract step back from the early high and last trade at 236.11p. Brent has gained 39 cents a barrel this morning with the last trade going through at $81.19 a barrel.  

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