After a quiet period… winter competitiveness worries the European gas market!

Concern prevails among European gas trading institutions again, after a respite from record price fluctuations that lasted for more than a year.

Although demand is still weak, and the region has emerged from the heating season thanks to the highest levels of inventories on record, influential institutions in the industry, whose representatives are meeting during the “Flame” conference held in Amsterdam this week, see escalating risks, while prices are responding to this. Developments.

Their concerns include uncertainty about Russian flows through Ukraine, and the rebound in gas demand in Asia. The winter is also likely to be colder than usual, stimulating consumption in Europe, after two consecutive mild seasons.

“Are we out of the woods?” said Cara McDonald, head of LNG supply and clean fuels at RWE AG. I think it’s too early to say that. “If we face a cold winter this year or next, the elasticity of demand will diminish.”

In his remarks during the Flame conference, an executive from Ukraine’s Gas TSO ruled out any interconnection agreement that would allow Russian gas to pass through, when the current agreement expires by the end of the year. Andrei Prokofiev said that gas production will not be auctioned at the border.

For his part, Marco Salfrank, head of commercial trading for continental Europe at Expo Holding AG, said that while traders do not appear to completely rule out some flows, such statements raise a big question mark. (Bloomberg)