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Europe Gas: Prices rise on weaker supply from Russia, Norwegian strikes

Dutch and British wholesale gas prices rose on Tuesday morning as flows from Russia dipped and strikes at Norwegian oil and gas infrastructure added to concerns over supply.

The Dutch front-month contract rose by 10.15 euros to 171.95 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0842 GMT, its highest level since March 9.

The Dutch day-ahead price rose 4.9 euros to 167.50 euros/MWh.

The British day-ahead contract gained 36 pence to trade at 265 p/therm.

Norwegian offshore workers began a strike on Tuesday that will reduce oil and gas output, with the impact expected to cut the country’s gas output by a total of 292,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or 13% of output on Wednesday.

A further planned escalation by Saturday could see close to a quarter of Norway’s gas output shut, as well as around 15% of its oil production, according to a Reuters calculation.

“Concerns over lost Norwegian natgas flows due to strike action (is) compounding the tightness caused by low Russian Nord Stream 1 supply and its upcoming maintenance,” ICIS analyst Tom Marzec-Manser said on Twitter.

Flows of Russian gas to Europe via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and deliveries through Ukraine edged lower on Tuesday while eastbound gas flows via the Yamal pipeline to Poland from Germany stopped, operator data showed.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline will undergo regular annual maintenance from July 11 to July 21, when flows usually fall to zero, raising concern over how promptly they will resume afterwards.

“The persistent uncertainty around Russian supply via the Nord Stream pipeline from 21 July adds considerable supply risk premium to the European gas prices,” analysts at Refinitiv said in a daily research note.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract was 0.54 euro lower at 84.01 euros a tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Susanna Twidale; editing by Nina Chestney)

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