Market Insight

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Mon, 30th Sep ’24

GAS

  • Trading has now closed for Oct-24/Q424/Winter-24.
  • Markets finished on a decidedly bullish tone on Friday, and have continued to post gains this morning.
  • Seasonal Forwards are up on the week, down on the month (see chart below).
  • The UK system has opened short (demand forecast outstripping supply).
  • Ongoing scheduled maintenance and lower temperatures are supportive to the upside.
  • An unplanned outage at Asgard is restricting 7 million cubic metres of Norwegian flow.
  • LDZ demand is nominating at 103mcm, with temperatures marginally below seasonal norms today.
  • On the hedging side, all eyes are on Day-Ahead/Month-Ahead performance with Winter-24 beginning tomorrow.
  • Monthly Day-Ahead averages so far this month are on target to achieve 87.1p/therm (or approx. 3.173p/kwh excluding non-gas).

ELECTRICITY & CARBON

  • Looking to the continent, near-term delivery prices are low reflecting very high wind outputs.
  • On the weather side, temperatures will be near normal on the short-term, cooling by the end of the week, then warming again next week.
  • Wind generation will be strong tonight, calming mid-week, with potential for increased activity next week.
  • Solar generation in Central Western Europe will be limited for the next few days, improving from Thursday, but may decrease next week due to low-pressure systems.
  • On the carbon markets, prices were slightly decorrelated from gas prices on Friday.
  • Gas climbed slightly while the EUA benchmark Dec ’24 contract lost 0.29% – closing the day, and the week, at €66.33/tonne, signing an overall gain of +4.64% week-on-week.
  • Conversely UKAs dropped below and out of the triangle, and broke below the mid-August lows on good bearish volume.
  • £33.50/tonne is now a far-off (but viable target) to the downside marking an area of confluence (historical low plus lower extremity of descending trend channel) – see technical chart below.
  • Fundamentally, the fall in UKAs is being attributed to market participants’ reaction to UK policy review (or the Free Allocation Review).
  • The outcome being that the expected scarcity of UKAs come 2026 has now been puished back to 2027 – no doubt resulting in speculators reducing long (buy) exposure.
  • As such, UKA values dropped 10% last week – more downside would seem likely over the coming weeks with an auction set for 2nd Oct.
  • Our electricity generation mix is bearish in nature today with renewables contributing 40%, thermal at 23% (gas and coal) and low carbon at 19% (nuclear and imports).
  • Monthly Day-Ahead averages so far this month are on target to achieve £72.375/mwh (or approx. 7.2375p/kwh excluding non-energy).

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