Crude oil prices closed at their highest levels in months yesterday after a fortnight during which price rises have vastly outnumbered price falls. Support for prices is coming mainly from expectations of further economic stimulus in China and expectations that OPEC+ will continue to delay the lifting of output curbs if demand weakness calls for that.
The March Brent crude contract closed at USD 77.05/barrel on Tuesday, up 1.0% from USD 76.30/barrel on Monday. This was the highest front-month close since the middle of October last year. WTI moved in tandem, up 0.9%, from USD 73.56/barrel to USD 74.25/barrel.
In Europe, natural gas prices appear to be normalising after the exuberance of the festive period – when the looming deadline of the cessation of Russian pipeline gas through Ukraine pushed TTF briefly above the EUR 50/MWh threshold.
Yesterday, the February TTF futures contract closed at USD 14.39/MMBtu (EUR 47.47/MWh), down 0.2% from USD 14.41/MMBtu on Monday. The decline comes despite freezing weather in much of north-west Europe.
In the UK, where snow and rain have led to widespread flooding over the past week, NBP fell 0.1%, from USD 14.76/MMBtu to USD 14.74/MMBtu.
In Asia, JKM continued its run of stability, edging down by 0.1% to USD 14.27/MMBtu.
US gas prices remain highly volatile amid winter storm Blair, which has seen several states declare states of emergency. On Tuesday, Henry Hub was down 6.1%, from USD 3.67/MMBtu on Monday to USD 3.45/MMBtu.
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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.
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