The European Union executive on Tuesday proposed a gas price cap for the bloc at 275 euros ($282) per megawatt hour for month-ahead derivatives on the Dutch exchange that serve as Europe’s benchmark. The idea to cap prices has divided EU countries for many months and diplomats said the level proposed on Tuesday was unlikely to be popular when energy ministers from the bloc’s 27 member countries debate it on Thursday. “We propose to put a ceiling on the TTF (Title Transfer Facility) gas price to protect our people and ...

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to Ukrainians to conserve energy amid relentless Russian strikes that have halved the country’s power capacity, as the United Nations health body warned of a humanitarian disaster in Ukraine this winter. Authorities said millions of Ukrainians, including in the capital Kyiv, could face power cuts at least until the end of March due to the missile attacks, which Ukraine’s national grid operator Ukrenergo said had wreaked “colossal” damage. Temperatures have been unseasonably mild in Ukraine this autumn, but are starting to dip below zero and are ...

The German government plans to apply a cap on gas prices, which will come into force in March 2023, retroactively from January next year, according to government sources on Tuesday. Customers will be relieved retroactively for the months of January and February to the same extent the cap allows, the sources said, as first reported by Spiegel Online. Private households and small companies will now benefit from the cap for all of 2023 until the end of April 2024. A price brake for industry is to kick in from January. ...

British prompt gas prices rose on Tuesday morning amid increased supply concerns as Norwegian flows dropped and markets embraced for further delays in the restart of Freeport LNG, one of the biggest U.S. export facilities for liquefied natural gas. The Dutch the benchmark front-month contract traded up 2.20 euros at 116.80 euros/MWh by 0958 GMT, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. The British within-day contract rose by 8 pence to 118 pence per therm, and the day-ahead contract was up by 0.50 pence at 112 p/therm, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. ...

Freeport LNG has not yet submitted a full request to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to restart a Texas plant, a source familiar with the company’s filings said on Monday. The lack of a full request has raised questions about the company’s ability to meet its latest restart timeline. Freeport LNG on Friday said it was targeting a mid-December restart for its Texas export plant, which has been shut for six months after a fire, pending regulatory approval. “Proposed remedial work activities for ...

U.S. natural gas futures slid about 2% on Tuesday on forecasts for less cold weather and lower heating demand than previously expected through early December and questions about whether Freeport will be able to restart its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Texas in mid December as planned. Freeport LNG has a full request to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to restart the export plant, according to sources familiar with the company’s filings. That lack of filing raises questions about whether the ...

QatarEnergy has signed a 27-year deal to supply China’s Sinopec with liquefied natural gas (LNG), the longest such LNG agreement so far as volatile markets drive buyers to seek long-term deals. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, competition for LNG has become intense, with Europe in particular needing vast amounts to help replace Russian pipeline gas that used to make up almost 40% of the continent’s imports. “Today is an important milestone for the first sales and purchase agreement (SPA) for North Field East project, it is 4 million ...

British prompt gas prices fell on Monday morning amid increased supply from Norway and downward demand revisions, but further out contracts rose both in Britain and the continent. The British within-day contract fell by 24.03 pence to 85 pence per therm by 0946 GMT, with the day-ahead contract down by 9 pence at 95 p/therm, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. The December contract was up 15.50 pence up at 282 p/therm. The UK system was 13.7 million cubic metres (mcm) long on Monday morning, National Grid data showed. Norwegian piped ...

U.S. natural gas futures gained about 4% to a two-week high on Monday on forecasts for colder weather and stronger heating demand this week than previously expected. Traders also noted the expected restart of the 2.1-billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) Freeport LNG’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Texas in mid December, if it happens, would boost demand for gas in coming weeks. The plant shut six months ago after a fire. One factor weighing on futures prices, however, were forecasts for less cold weather in early December ...

Workers at BP’s Rotterdam refinery, which is currently offline, will not help restart operations unless their wage demands are met, union leaders said on Monday. The company said on Saturday it expected to have the refinery back on line “early” this week after an unspecified technical problem. Union leader Jaap Bosma of the CNV union identified the problem that impacted the refinery as a loss of steam. He said that workers would help fix the resulting problems, but they would not assist to resume refining operations unless a new Wednesday ...

China launched an expansion of its liquefied natural gas terminal in Shanghai’s Yangshan port, with total investment of about 17 billion yuan ($2.37 billion), state media reported on Monday. The project includes a new 150,000-tonne LNG ship berth and storage capacity of 3.1 million cubic metres, nearly 3.5 times the capacity of existing storage tanks, added the report. Source: Reuters (Reporting by Dominique Patton; Editing by Kim Coghill)

As Germany struggles with the energy crisis sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many communities there are looking with added urgency at ways to try to wean themselves off gas and oil. Abensberg in Bavaria is among a number of towns which have pioneered alternative energy solutions in recent years. The town of 15,000 people is focussing on solar power, and has ambitions to be self-sufficient in electricity by 2030. Lothar Stich pointed enthusiastically at the streetlights along the bicycle path near his home. “They are all solar powered,” ...

Europe’s gas storage probably peaked this week ahead of the winter after a refill season that shattered records for its length and the volume of gas injected into storage sites across the region. Inventories in the European Union and the United Kingdom reached 1,079 terawatt-hours (TWh) on Nov. 13, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (“Aggregated gas storage inventory”, GIE, Nov. 18). They have since fallen slightly as cold weather and lower prices encourage more consumption, in what probably marks the end of the summer refill season and the start of ...

The European Commission’s proposed price cap on natural gas will “distort” market signals with potential “unintended consequences” for demand and supply, Rystad Energy said in a report on Friday. The EU plans to propose a cap on natural gas prices after November 24, as part of its efforts to contain an energy crisis resulting from Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, the EU’s energy policy chief told Reuters on Wednesday. This proposal includes a market correction mechanism for the Dutch TTF gas futures, the benchmark European contract. “Any move to limit ...

European refiners have found themselves oversupplied with crude as an expected shortage owing to the looming EU ban on Russian oil has yet to materialise. The front-month Brent crude futures spread narrowed sharply this week, reflecting better supply in the physical oil market as fears over the EU embargo on Russian crude begin to subside. Premiums on prompt prices to future prices – known as a backwardated market structure – usually indicate supply tightness. Traders cited Europe’s ability to replace Russian oil with grades from the Middle East, the United ...