After yesterday’s retreat from highs, oil prices returned to gains on Friday, March 4. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is up 2.5%, with a barrel back above $110. North Sea Brent is up about 2%, with a price tag of $112.60 a barrel.
The natural gas trading dynamics are not inferior to the oil movement. Blue fuel prices also returned to growth after a corrective move on Thursday, March 3 .
The cost of 1000 cubic meters of natural gas on the Netherlands TTF index at 15:35 Moscow time was $2170, and the daily growth on the instrument reaches 30%. In the US market, natural gas is also among the leaders in growth, although not as abnormal as in Europe (+3%).
It is worth noting that Europe has fully used up its reserves pumped in summer. According to the data of the European Association of Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) as of February 26, 2022, the European UGS capacity utilization rate fell below 30% and amounted to 29.5% considering the median average.
But if we look at the reserves by country, we can see that they are unevenly distributed. In Germany they are 29.4% full, in France they are less than 23%. And Austria has only 17.5%.
Natural gas is growing by 30% against the backdrop of a critical reduction in Europe’s UGS reserves. Photo: Oilprice.com
