Gas prices edge higher amid low LNG supply
Gas prices edged higher on Tuesday amid fresh LNG supply fears and climbing UK exports.
Small moves were posted across the curve despite a predominately low demand outlook. Reports of an unplanned outage at Malaysia’s Bintulu LNG plant seemingly reached European hubs on Tuesday and likely played into the increases. State-owned operator Petronas told reporters that there had been a sudden loss of power at the plant over the weekend.
This has so far resulted in the cancellation of at least 10 cargoes, putting even greater strain on over-stretched global supplies of the fuel.
An uptick in UK export flows to the European Union likely created an anxious outlook, data collated from National Gas shows that interconnector flows averaged at a rate of 63mcm/d throughout the session. This represented an increase of 141% when compared to a week earlier and, along with low LNG send out, tightened the UK’s supply and demand balance.
Prices have opened firm this morning, with the Winter 24 front-season contract last trading circa 0.03p/kWh above its previous settlement at time of writing.
The UK is currently consuming 29.66 GW’s of electricity (10:00 – 10:30).
The UK’s onshore and offshore wind turbines are currently generating only 2.60 GW’s (8.52%) of the UK’s total electricity with solar generation at 4.29 GW’s (14.04%) and gas for power generating a significant 10.12 GW’s (33.13%) of the total.
If you want to see more information on the wholesale market trends subscribe to our weekly report here.