Pricewatch | 26 May 2022 | Gas Matters Today

Natural gas prices on both sides of the Atlantic continued to climb on Wednesday, with US gas benchmark soaring to over USD 9/MMBtu for the first time since 2008.

The June-dated Henry Hub contract hit an intraday high of USD 9.39/MMBtu and later settled at USD 8.97/MMBtu, marking a 2% gain on Tuesday’s close.

Multiple factors have helped lift Henry Hub in recent weeks, including sluggish production increases, gas storage levels being at a multi-year low, and forecasts for strong demand this summer.

Across the pond, the front-month TTF and NBP contracts closed 3.4% and 8.9% higher respectively on Wednesday, with the unplanned outage at the Troll field offshore Norway helping lift prices.

TTF closed at the equivalent of USD 27.52/MMBtu, with NBP settling at the equivalent of USD 18.67/MMBtu.

As for Asian LNG marker JKM, the front-month contract returned to the green, closing 0.7% higher at USD 22.22/MMBtu.

Crude prices ticked higher on Wednesday, lifted by a tightening market. WTI closed 0.4% higher at USD 110.33/barrel, with Brent settling 0.5% higher at USD 114.03/barrel.

Front-month futures and indexes at last close with day-on-day changes (click to enlarge):

Time references based on London GMT. Brent, WTI, NBP, TTF and EU CO2 data from ICE. Henry Hub, JKM and API2 data from CME. Prices in USD/MMBtu based on exchange rates at last market close. All monetary values rounded to nearest whole cent/penny. Text and graphic copyright © Gas Strategies, all rights.