The Commodities Feed: Natural gas volatility continues – MENAFN.COM

The Commodities Feed: Natural gas volatility continues – MENAFN.COM

It was another volatile day in the natural gas market yesterday. TTF prices traded to an intraday high of a little more than EUR162/MWh (up around 40%), which is yet another record high. According to S & P Platts, the spot JKM benchmark broke above the US$50/MMBtu mark for the first time ever yesterday to US$56. 326/MMBtu. The market also saw its largest single day increase – up US$16. 655/MMBtu on the day. Asian prices continue to hold their strength, with the region having to compete with Europe for spot LNG cargoes. The Asian spot LNG market is trading at an oil equivalent of around US$320/bbl, while Brent is trading nearer US$81/bbl. Therefore, the incentive for gas to oil switching is only getting stronger. In Europe, the latest data shows that storage is around 76% full compared to a 5-year average of around 90% for this stage of the year. This should still edge higher in the coming weeks. We generally only start to see gas storage falling towards the end of October/early November, despite the winter gas season officially starting on 1 October. While European intraday prices hit record levels yesterday, TTF did give back all these gains to