EU natural gas prices fall again
20 tankers with LNG from USA on the way

A flotilla of US liquefied natural gas carriers on their way to Europe has brought relief to European gas consumers and has cut gas prices significantly. According to Bloomberg, quoted by the Russian broadcaster Sputnik, the number of LNG shipments from the USA to Europe rose by a third over the Christmas weekend.
20 US liquefied natural gas tankers are en route to Europe, and another 14 are headed in the same direction, awaiting more orders as Europe desperate in the face of the ongoing gas crisis which has led to a series of price records and forced some countries to do so to restart decommissioned coal-fired power plants was willing to pay a higher price than buyers in Asia.
Analysts say the US cargoes will not make a lasting difference due to the limited volume, but the news that the cargoes are going to Europe has already impacted European gas prices as it coincided with the forecast for milder weather.
Bloomberg reported last week that gas in Europe was trading at over $ 57 per million British Thermal Units, a premium of about $ 24 per mmBtu over Asian gas prices - more than enough to drive larger US LNG sales to motivate to Europe.
Last Tuesday, European gas prices soared to an all-time high after the gas from the Yamal-Europe pipeline stopped flowing east and freezing temperatures prevailed in many parts of Europe. The reference price for Europe at the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) rose by 11 percent on December 21 to a record level of 162.78 euros per megawatt hour.
Since then, however, prices have fallen steadily, although Gazprom refrained from booking export capacities via the Yamal-Europe pipeline for the eighth day in a row. A tenth of all Russian gas deliveries to Europe go through this pipeline, but last week it was moved in the opposite direction to Poland. According to a Gazprom spokesman, the company's customers had already contracted their volumes for 2021 and were not making any requests for additional volumes.
Another reason for the lower gas prices in Europe this week is lower trading activity around the holidays, according to Bloomberg.





