A scene of history!After earning money, the price of natural gas in the United States is actually negative. European gas storage tanks are full
This is indeed a funny scene. As winter approaches, Europe has a glut of natural gas, and its price once fell into negative value.
On October 24, local time, the spot price of some natural gas in Europe once fell into negative numbers to -15.78 euros/MWh, the lowest price ever.
Affected by this, the main contract of European TTF natural gas futures fell below the 100 euros/MWh mark on Monday to 96.5 euros/MWh, a daily drop of 15%, hitting a 4-month low. The main contract price is down 70.8% from its peak of €346.5/MWh set in August.
Europe’s natural gas supply was originally highly dependent on Russia. However, since March this year, Gazprom has accelerated its withdrawal from the European market, which has caused European energy prices to rise sharply. In order to alleviate the energy crisis, Europe has made a multi-pronged approach to increase its natural gas purchases since September, which has led to a large number of LNG tankers flocking to Europe.
European gas inventories are nearing storage limits after a flood of high-priced purchases. According to data from the European Gas Infrastructure Association (GIE), as of October 24, the overall natural gas storage rate in the EU was 93.61%, and the gas storage rate in Germany, the largest economy, climbed to 97.5%.
Although the gas storage rate is close to the limit, there are still a large number of LNG tankers heading for Europe. Media statistics show that Europe is expected to accept 82 LNG tankers this month, an increase of 19% from September. Tracking images from MarineTraffic show that around 60 LNG tankers are currently idling or sailing slowly in northwestern Europe, the Mediterranean and the Iberian Peninsula.
Giacomo Masato, chief analyst and senior meteorologist at Italian energy company Illumia, expects the current gas glut to continue at least until December, given that Europe is unlikely to experience a prolonged cold snap in November this year.
It is understood that the European Union mainly relies on liquefied natural gas from the United States for gas hoarding. According to financial information service provider Refinitiv, U.S. outbound cargo ships loaded 6.3 million tons of LNG in September, nearly 70 percent of which were destined for Europe, earning U.S. suppliers a lot of money.
However, as the natural gas storage tanks in Europe are about to fill up, the impact on the natural gas producing areas in the United States has also begun to show. On the evening of the day, as of press time, the above-mentioned transaction price had fallen to a negative value, the first time in the past two years.
