Good news on Norwegian pipeline maintenance eases markets

Hopes of a swift conclusion to Sleipner maintenance prompted the complete reversal of Mondays gains to gas prices yesterday.

Contracts across the curve shed value during the afternoon trade and even managed to break below the levels we saw prior to Monday’s rally in what was a clear sigh of relief for the British market.

Norwegian operator Gassco issued an update on their maintenance schedule regarding the ongoing outages at Sleipner field and subsequently the Nyhamna processing facility, amending the expected completion of works to Friday 7th June which is sooner than some had initially feared.

At the same time, the UK’s 72.5mcm/d Easington import terminal remained completely out of action due to the aforementioned upstream capacity restrictions in Norway, which is likely why the NBP has seen more volatility than other European gas hubs in the first half of this week.

In other news, energy giant Chevron confirmed yesterday that their Gorgon LNG production facility in Western Australia is fully operational again after one of the terminals three units was taken offline on 3rd June (this may have also fed into the bullishness of Monday’s session).

Gas prices are relatively unchanged this morning, with most being offered very much in line when compared to their previous settlement, at time of writing.

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