- The next negative prices in energy contracts is to take place in European natural gas prices.
- This is due to poor demand and lack of storage capacity for the commodity.
- The negative price may happen either this day or the next week due to low demand and heavy supply, so more chances to get closer to negative prices.
- UK prices once turned negative in October 2006, when the new Langeled pipeline from Norway boosted supply at a time when UK gas storage capacity was 96 percent full.
A recently published article in Oil Price written by Tsvetana Paraskova deals with dwindling negative prices due to poor demand and continuing supply with no more storage capacity.
Slump in prices
Prices at the Dutch TTF hub and the prompt UK wholesale gas prices have recently slumped by 20-30 percent to low single-digits. There is a risk that they may go negative because gas demand in Europe is still very weak while storage is close to capacity.
The demand and storage situation in the UK looks particularly weak, according to Wood Mackenzie.
“The industry and power sectors account for most of the UK’s summer gas demand. And both of those sectors have been hit hard by the lockdown,” said Hadrien Collineau, a senior analyst with Wood Mackenzie’s gas team.
UK gas storage could be full by early June, Collineau says.
“With UK summer demand expected to be lower than average and with limits on storage capacity, it’s clear that there is very little space for any additional supplies. LNG exporters hoping to place cargoes into the UK market have the most to lose. There simply won’t be any more space.”
ENN Energy Holdings
Earlier this month, ENN Energy Holdings, one of China’s largest natural gas distributors, said it was not ruling out the possibility that natural gas prices could follow last month’s WTI Crude move and flip to negative because of insufficient storage.
“For natural gas, I have heard about the possibility of negative prices. I also think it could happen,” Wang Yusuo, chairman at ENN Energy Holdings, said at the company’s online shareholders’ meeting, without specifying which natural gas benchmark in which region could turn negative.
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Source: Oil Price
