Gas prices drop amid LNG boost and mild winter

GAS PRICES slumped yesterday, despite seemingly favourable geopolitical trends such as increased tensions between Russia and Ukraine, delays in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and eastward flows on the key Yamal-Europe pipeline for the 30th day in a row.

Nevertheless, UK natural gas prices are down nearly five per cent, with futures trading for March and April reporting near six per cent drops.

Meanwhile, Dutch futures on the TTF benchmark are also down around five per cent, with similar drops for futures this spring.

Saxo Bank's head of commodity strategy Ole Hansen attributed the drop in prices to three factors: fading supply disruptions in Norway, milder weather forecasts reducing demand, and the highest arrivals of LNG into the market since November 2019.

This has bolstered formerly flagging supplies, heightened by problems at the pumps in Russia.

It is not the first time LNG supplies have bailed out Europe's supply crisis following worries of potential blackouts.

While power shortages have been reported in Moldova and Kosovo, larger economies avoided an energy crunch at Christmas after a flotilla of tankers arrived from the US - dropping prices from record levels.