Pricewatch | 16 Jan 2023 | Gas Matters Today

Global natural gas prices plunged on Friday, as wind power generation prevailed in Europe and US production kept outpacing demand.

The Dutch TTF saw a 3.1% decline to US 20.54/MMBtu, while the UK’s NBP fell 2.8% to USD 19.82/MMBtu.

The plunge comes amid strong wind levels delivering a relief to prices. Germany's windfarms produced 71% of electricity fed into the grid from wind on Friday, followed by a 45% share in the UK, according to WindEurope. Europe’s largest wind power generation country Denmark saw its share surge to 116% on Friday.

Meanwhile, the Asian LNG marker JKM was relatively flat, up 0.2% to USD 26.81/MMBtu.

Henry Hub’s front-month contracts traded at 3.42/MMBtu on Friday, down 7% day on day. US gas prices have halved in less than a month, and experts predict declines are set to continue this year on production growth continuing to outpace demand growth.

Oil prices settled higher on Friday on the US dollar’s drop to a seven-month low and more indicators pointing towards growing demand from top oil importer China, according to Reuters.

Brent was up 1.5%, settling at USD 85.28/barrel, while WTI rose 1.9% to USD 79.86/barrel.

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.