Europe Gas: Prices climb on Nord Stream capacity cut, LNG concerns

Fluxys Belgium SA

15/06/2022 15:34

(Updates prices, details of Nord Stream capacity cut)
    June 15 (Reuters) - British and Dutch wholesale gas rose on
Wednesday after Gazprom warned capacity through its pipeline to
Germany would be cut further from Thursday and an extended
outage at the Freeport liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant
re-ignited supply concerns.
    The Dutch front-month contract  TRNLTTFMc1  was up 16.7
euros at 113.60 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 1518 GMT, its
highest level since mid-May. The day-ahead contract was up 17.07
euros at 107.50 euros/MWh.
    Gazprom said flows through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would
be curbed to up to 67 million cubic metres (mcm) from 1.30 am
Moscow time on Thursday (2230 GMT on Wednesday) due to issues
with Siemens made equipment at the Portovaya compressor station
near St Petersburg.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nS8N2V30HB
    Gazprom had already on Tuesday said flows were cut to up to
100 mcm per day, down from 167 mcm, citing the delayed return of
equipment that had been sent for repair.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2Y132H
    Supply concerns are compounded by an outage extension at
Freeport LNG, one of the largest U.S. operators of liquefied
natural gas export terminals, which would remove 40 cargoes.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2Y12WD
    "This threatens to undermine the very solid replenishment of
stocks that has been seen of late. At a good 52%, storage
facilities in the EU were almost back at their usual filling
level recently," analysts at Commerzbank said in a note.
    Gas storage sites in the European Union were 52.63% full,
data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed, but Europe faces a
perilous winter even with full storage, analysts warned.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2Y11HK
    Physical flows to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline
dipped below 40,000,000 kilowatt hours per hour (kWh/h) on
Tuesday, but were seen higher at 44,888,435 kWh/h by Wednesday
afternoon.
    The British day-ahead contract < TRGBNBPD1> was up 20 pence
to 186 p per therm, while the British July contract  TRGBNBPMN2 
rose by 2.75 p to 199.25 p/therm.
    In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract
 CFI2Zc1  rose by 1.36 euros to 85.51 euros a tonne.

 (Reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo and Susanna Twidale in London;
Editing by Nina Chestney and Edmund Blair)
 ((Nora.Buli@thomsonreuters.com; (+47) 21 04 05 56; Reuters
Messaging: nora.buli.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))