European natural gas prices fell as Chevron Corp. and labor unions in Australia agreed to end strikes at major export plants that roiled the market for more than a month.
(Bloomberg) — European natural gas prices fell as Chevron Corp. and labor unions in Australia agreed to end strikes at major export plants that roiled the market for more than a month.
Dutch Benchmark futures declined as much as 6.1%, ending three days of gains. Chevron’s liquefied natural gas workers accepted a proposed settlement on pay and conditions put forward by the country’s labor regulator and will suspend industrial action, unions said.
In another boost to supplies, Norway — Europe’s biggest exporter — continues to ramp up production after protracted outages, with flows increasing again on Friday.
While the region’s gas consumption remains tepid, and winter inventories are higher than normal, the market remains tight and is still extremely sensitive. Numerous risks — from outages in the US to potential disruptions to the little gas Russia is still exporting by pipelines — can still have an impact on prices.
“Between the strike settlement and Norway ramping back up, a vast amount of gas supply is back in the mix that was uncertain a week ago,” said Ira Joseph, a global fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. “Don’t forget we are still at one of the weakest moments of the year for seasonal demand.”
Dutch front-month futures, the European benchmark, fell 3.2% to €37.87 a megawatt-hour by 8:09 a.m. in Amsterdam. The UK equivalent declined 3.3%.
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