European OTC gas liquidity up in April

Market: Natural gas
17/05/24

European over-the-counter (OTC) gas liquidity rose on the month and year in April, and was the highest for the month since 2021, according to the London Energy Brokers Association.

OTC volumes totalled 1.905PWh, up from 1.851PWh in March. Trade of 1.391PWh on the Dutch TTF accounted for 73pc, in line with in recent months. But the 238TWh traded on the UK NBP was down sharply on the month, accounting for 12.5pc of European OTC trade, against 17.3pc in March (see TTF vs NBP graph).

Trade of 204TWh on the German THE was well down on the month, but still up on the year. THE activity has fluctuated widely in recent months (see THE, PSV, Peg graph).

And activity on the PSV edged down only slightly. Activity on the Italian hub has held well ahead of the French Peg this year, after holding lower for much of 2023.

Trading on the Belgian ZTP hub fell sharply on the month — to 4.3TWh from 7.6TWh. Activity had trailed off from 2020 to almost nothing, before rising slightly in September last year as trading ended on Belgium's Zee hub (see Belgium graph).

April exchange liquidity edges up

Gas trading on the EEX exchange in April increased on the month and year, but held below the first-quarter average.

EEX volumes hit 556TWh, up from 547TWh in March, which was the lowest since May last year. Volumes were up from 516TWh in April last year.

That said, trading in April was below monthly averages for the first quarter and whole of 2023 — 608TWh and 601TWh, respectively.

EEX liquidity rose on THE and edged up on TTF from the month before, but fell on PEG, NBP, ZTP and CEGH. Trading was heaviest on TTF, at 304TWh, followed by THE, with 104TWh, and Austria's CEGH, with 31TWh.

Roughly 8TWh changed hands at the Italian PSV, up from 7TWh in January, and hit a new high on EEX.

By Rhys Talbot and Jana Cervinkova

TTF vs NBP as pc of European traded volumes

THE, Peg, PSV traded volumes

ZTP traded volumes

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