Articles tagged Europe

European natural gas prices gave up last week’s gains on Monday, despite an unplanned outage at a top field in Norway and ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Editor’s Note: This column is part of a regular series by industry veteran Brad Hitch for NGI’s LNG Insight dedicated to addressing the complexities of the global natural gas market.

Global natural gas demand is set to rise by 2.5% or 100 billion cubic meters (Bcm) in 2024 versus 2023, likely accompanied by increased price volatility, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The tensions ratcheting up in the Middle East have left the Suez Canal devoid of LNG carriers to start the week, adding shipping lags and costs to cargoes for possibly the rest of the winter.

The Netherlands became the third-largest European LNG importer last year, after France and Spain, as U.S. liquefied natural gas imports flooded Dutch LNG facilities.  

Despite signs over the weekend that armed conflict in the Middle East may be ratcheting up to a new level, global natural gas prices continued to edge downward as storage levels and weather trumped volatility.

A bitter cold snap gripping much of Europe wasn’t enough Monday to sustain a three-day rally in natural gas prices there as strong imports have kept the continent well supplied. 

Natural gas prices worldwide have continued to edge down as lagging winter weather and abundant storage win out over increasing risks in the Middle East and earthquakes in Japan.

New additions to European LNG import capacity are moving forward as developers straddle the line between a current natural gas supply shortage and the region’s forecasted pivot to alternative fuels in the next decade.

Egypt’s LNG exports have bounced back this month after domestic gas shortages and war in Israel have curbed output this year.