Tag: Northwest Europe

Best in Energy – 26 April 2023

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EUROPE’s summer-winter gas futures calendar spread between July 2023 and January 2024 has slumped into a contango of more than €17 per megawatt-hour down from €4 on December 30 and a backwardation of €3 at the start of last winter on October 3. Storage is expected to become full well before the end of the traditional refill season in late October or early November. Nearby futures prices are falling to encourage more consumption this summer and divert cargoes to price-sensitive buyers in Asia. But prices in the middle of next winter are still expected to be high given limits on the total amount of gas that can be stored and released and the consequent need for demand restraint in December 2023 and January 2024:

NORTHWEST EUROPE has experienced a slightly colder-than-normal start to the gas refill season, limiting the volume added to storage and forestalling a sharper fall in futures prices and deeper contango. Average daily temperatures at Frankfurt in Germany have been -0.6°C below the long-term seasonal average so far in April:

Best in Energy – 3 April 2023

OPEC⁺  announces pre-emptive production cut

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EUROZONE manufacturers reported a fall in business activity in March for the ninth month running. The final reading for the purchasing managers’ index was 47.3 (17th percentile since 2006), little changed from the preliminary reading of 47.1 published just over a week earlier, and well below the 50-point threshold dividing expanding activity from a contraction. Energy prices have retreated from record highs in the third quarter of 2022 but remain far above the long-term average. Excess inventories continue to weigh on orders and production. Manufacturers now have to deal with increased fears about a recession and increased caution from household and business purchasers:

NORTHWEST EUROPE is now more than 90% of the way through the heating demand season. The accumulated number of heating degree days at Frankfurt in Germany (a proxy for the densely populated macro-region of Northwest Europe) in winter 2022/23 was just 1,621 on March 31 compared with a long-term average of 1,966 (-18%). Temperatures were above the long-term average on 124 out of 182 days between October 1 and March 31 compared with only 58 days at or below normal:

Best in Energy – 17 March 2023

U.S. energy-related emissions projection

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OPEC⁺ sees oil price fall financially driven

Russia/India oil price above $60 on freight

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U.S. INTEREST RATE markets steadied on March 16 as the Federal Reserve organised major national banks to help boost confidence in their smaller regional counterparts by placing large-scale deposits with First Republic bank. Rate forecasts firmed slightly. But the rate trajectory implied by futures prices still shows rates declining from August onwards as the central bank responds to tightening credit conditions and a slowing economy:

NORTHWEST EUROPE is roughly 85% of the way through the heating season. Temperatures at Frankfurt in Germany have been close to the long-term seasonal average since the start of March. But very warm temperatures in October and from mid-December to mid-January have left a significant deficit in heating demand that has not been erased. The total number of degree days so far this winter (1540) is -16% below the long-term average (1842):

Best in Energy – 1 March 2023

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CHINA’s manufacturers reported the most widespread rise in business activity for over a decade as the economy rebounded after the end of coronavirus lockdowns and the passing of the epidemic’s exit wave. The official purchasing managers’ index surged to 52.6 in February, the highest since April 2012, and up from just 50.1 in January 2023 and 47.0 in December 2022. The index was in the 96th percentile for all months since 2011 pointing to a very broad upturn in activity:

NORTHWEST EUROPE is more than three-quarters of the way through the heating season. Frankfurt in Germany has experienced 1,377 heating degree days so far this winter compared with a long-term seasonal average of 1,673, a deficit of almost 18%, reducing heating demand and easing the pressure on gas inventories and prices:

Best in Energy – 10 February 2023

Russia plans to cut oil production by 0.5 million b/d in March

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U.S. gas production growth set to slow as futures prices slump

Germany’s storage firms to “refine” gas purchasing strategy

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U.S. heating oil prices ease from record high in early November

CFTC/ICE commitment of traders suspended for second week

NORTHWEST EUROPE is now roughly two-thirds of the way through the winter heating season. In an average year, two-thirds of all heating degree days at Frankfurt in Germany occur on or before February 10. Cumulative heating demand has been the lowest since the winter of 2015/16 and before that 2006/07. With the 2022/23 heating season now winding down, traders’ attention has already turned to the summer refill season and winter 2023/24:

U.S. INTEREST RATE traders anticipate a major reduction in inflationary pressure – with or without a significant slowdown in the business cycle – which has been reflected in a sharp reduction in forward interest rate forecasts. Market forecasts for interest rates at the end of 2024 fell by more than a full percentage point between the start of November and the start of February:

Best in Energy – 2 February 2023

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FRANKFURT, a proxy for northwest Europe, reached roughly 60% of the way through the winter heating season on February 1. So far the accumulated heating demand has been -17% below the long-term average and is the lowest since 2015/16 and before that 2006/07. But after an exceptionally long period of mild temperatures between December 19 and January 15, temperatures have turned significantly colder, causing the heating deficit to narrow slightly:

Best in Energy – 13 October 2022

Saudi Arabia responds to oil cut critics

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NORTHWEST EUROPE has had an unusually early start to the winter heating season. Temperatures at Frankfurt-am-Main were consistently below the long-term average from the middle of September until early October, boosting gas and electricity consumption:

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Best in Energy – 3 October 2022

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NORTHWEST EUROPE faces the first test of whether it can lower energy consumption this winter. After warmer than normal temperatures in the first half of September, temperatures were below average in the second half, creating the first significant heating demand earlier than normal:

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