Unplanned Sleipner gas works boost European prices

Market: Natural gas
03/06/24

Unplanned works at the Sleipner platform in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea have cut gas deliveries to Europe and pushed up Dutch TTF prices along the curve this morning.

There is a crack in a 2-inch gas pipeline at the Sleipner riser platform, Norwegian offshore system operator Gassco told Argus. The crack is located above the waterline on the offshore platform. Gas arrives at the Sleipner riser from the Nyhamna processing plant, and is sent on to the Easington terminal in the UK. The crack at the riser has also meant processing and reception at linked upstream and downstream facilities have had to be halted, cutting 56mn m³ of planned deliveries from Nyhamna for Monday's gas day, Gassco said.

The operator could not say how long repairs might take, but said it is looking into ways to use the flexibility of the Norwegian offshore pipeline system to keep deliveries to Europe as high as possible.

The TTF July contract opened at €36.14/MWh on the Ice exchange this morning, up from Argus' assessment of €34.43/MWh on Friday, after Gassco on Sunday afternoon announced outages at the Nyhamna processing plant and Easington terminal for the 2 and 3 June gas day. The contract climbed further this morning after Gassco extended the unavailability to the 4 June gas day, reaching a high of €38.60/MWh near 11:00 UK time, although it had fallen back to slightly above the opening price by mid-afternoon.

Aggregate nominations for delivery to Europe on Gassco's network stood at 255mn m³ for Monday's gas day at 13:00 UK time, down from deliveries of 301mn m³ on 1 June. This would be the lowest deliveries since 20 September 2023 if the nominations are met, with the exception of 21 May, when planned works weighed on flows.

Nominations to the UK at Easington for Monday's gas day are at zero, but nominations for delivery at St Fergus have jumped to 15.2mn m³, the highest since 22 March.

Nominations of 43.2mn m³ to Zeebrugge in Belgium, Emden in Germany and the Nybro point with Denmark from which gas goes to Poland are in line with flows in previous days, while nominations for delivery to Dornum in Germany and Dunkirk in France are down slightly on the day (see graph).

By Rhys Talbot

Gassco nominations for deliveries to Europe, selected points

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