By KYIV. May 25 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The spot price for European gas has dropped to $306 per 1,000 cubic meters to revisit six-month lows, and May typically has the lowest prices as heating season segues into air conditioning season.
The Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, or GTSOU, has accepted a booking from Gazprom today to transport 40.3 million cubic meters of gas through the country, and the figure was 40.3 yesterday, data from the 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 day-ahead contract for today at the Dutch TTF gas hub in the Netherlands closed at $306 per 1,000 cubic meters, with the spot price having dropped another 6% in one day.
A split between LNG prices in Asia and those in Europe has noticeably returned. In Asia, the most expensive futures contract for May on the JKM Platts index is $342 per 1,000 cubic meters, and futures under the LNG North-West Europe Marker are $283 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Wind turbines provided an average of 11.9% of the region’s electricity needs on Wednesday, down from 17% on Tuesday and last Saturday, according to WindEurope.
Europe continues the gas-injection season into underground gas storage (UGS) facilities. Current inventory levels in Europe’s UGS facilities are 66.48%, which is 18 percentage points above the average for the same date over the past five years, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe.
Inventories increased 0.26 percentage points during the weekend gas day for May 23, with the pace still markedly lagging the usual injection levels over the past five years. Nevertheless, reserves could reach the target level of 90% storage capacity by the end of September if injection continues at this pace throughout the summer.
European LNG terminals operated at an average capacity of 67% in April, and they have averaged 63% since the beginning of May. Terminals have begun to shut down for annual maintenance work as the spring-summer season starts.
Moreover, the European market is becoming less attractive for LNG consignments because of declining prices
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.
Freeport LNG, the United States’ largest LNG plant, has reopened all three liquefaction lines, thereby reducing the excess gas on the U.S. market and boosting supplies of LNG to the global market.
The U.S. continues the season for injecting gas into UGS facilities. Inventories rose 2.8 billion cubic meters for the latest reporting week, which is the typical volume for this time of the year.
The current level of inventories is around 47%, which is 18 percentage points higher than the average figure for the past five years, according to the U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration.
