Pricewatch | 15 Jun 2020 | Gas Matters Today

Crude oil prices appeared to bottom out on Friday, with front-month global and US benchmarks virtually unchanged following heavy losses on Thursday. Brent and WTI settled at USD 38.73/barrel and USD 36.26/barrel, respectively, to mark their first weekly loss since the beginning of May. The price recovery stalled last week amid a continuous rise in global Covid-19 infections and a sharp rise in US oil inventories. Both were trading more than 1% lower on Monday on reports that Beijing has tightened lockdown measures to combat a resurgence in local infections.

Global gas benchmarks converged on Friday. European natural gas prices soared, with month-ahead UK NBP and Dutch TTF jumping 9.8% and 5.7% to hit the equivalent of USD 1.75/MMBtu and USD 1.74/MMBtu, respectively. US benchmark Henry Hub fell 4.5% to USD 1.73/MMBtu, thereby erasing the ‘American premium’ for gas. CME’s JKM futures, an indicator of Asian LNG spot prices, was virtually unchanged at USD 2.07/MMBtu.

Front-month futures and indexes at last close with day-on-day changes (click to enlarge):

Time references based on London GMT. Brent, WTI, NBP, TTF and EU CO2 data from ICE. Henry Hub, JKM and API2 data from CME. Prices in USD/MMBtu based on exchange rates at last market close. All monetary values rounded to nearest whole cent/penny. Text and graphic copyright © Gas Strategies, all rights reserved.