By KYIV. Dec 21 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Gas prices have dipped in Europe but this has not yet rubbed off entirely on Asia, where prices have also corrected down somewhat but remain higher.
Gazprom’s request for pumping Russian gas through Ukraine has not changed markedly from the previous days and months.
The Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, or GTSOU, has accepted a booking from Gazprom today to transport 42.4 million cubic meters of gas through the country, as on Tuesday, data from GTSOU show.
Capacity was requested only through one of two entry points into Ukraine’s Gas Transmission System, the Sudzha metering station. A request was not accepted through the Sokhranivka metering station.
The thaw in Europe has caused gas prices there to fall. The day-ahead contract for today at the Dutch TTF gas hub in the Netherlands closed at $1,152 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Asian prices are also correcting down somewhat, but are holding above prices in Europe. In Asia, the most expensive winter futures contract for February on the JKM Platts index is now $1,246 per 1,000 cubic meters on the heels of European prices.
Wind turbines have generated 25% of the EU’s electricity on average this week, following 13% on average last week, according to data from WindEurope.
The Nord Stream pipeline has been fully shut down owing to a number of sanctions-related problems regarding equipment maintenance. At the end of September, two lines of Nord Stream 1 and one line of Nord Stream 2 ruptured near the Danish island of Bornholm.
European inventories in underground gas storage (UGS) facilities are currently 83.45%, or 9.7 percentage points above the average indicator for the past five years, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).
Reserves "thinned" about 0.37 percentage point during the gas day on December 19.
The beginning of offtake season on November 14 this year was the latest since Gas Infrastructure Europe began monitoring in 2011, with the previous latest date coming on November 4, 2013. However, Gazprom has also warned that "the load on UGS facilities in Europe will be higher than in previous years owing to the changed logistics and sources of gas supplies to the European market."
European LNG terminals have been operating at an average capacity-utilization of 68% since the beginning of December, as in November. LNG inventories at terminals have been declining at 10% below the November average, implying that new shipments of LNG have been arriving to Europe more slowly than the market is consuming.
Germany opened the Wilhelmshaven LNG terminal, its first, on December 17. Information regarding the terminal has appeared in the GIE database, though gas has not yet been supplied to the system from the terminal.
The state of gas in UGS facilities in the United States is of increasing importance for the global market, and the country is actively increasing gas exports, primarily to Europe, while production is rising at a slower pace.
The U.S. has joined Europe in withdrawing gas from its UGS facilities. The latest reporting week ending December 9 saw 1.4 billion cubic meters of gas extracted from UGS facilities.
The current level of inventories is around 71%, which is just lower than average for the past five years; nevertheless, the figure is substantially lower than inventories at UGS facilities in Europe and in Russia, according to the U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration.
The EIA currently expects UGS stocks to drop by 60 billion cubic meters this winter to the average for the last five years. Natural gas volumes in storage facilities should total 40 bcm by the end of March, which would be 8% below the average for five years.
