Energy Market Highlights:
- Power prices continued to decline this week as the weather temperature in Europe remained above the seasonal average. The average EU gas storage level is at 82% full capacity.
- Across Europe, the weather is expected to remain “above-seasonal-normal, reducing demand for heating gas over the next four weeks”
- In a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin on December 27, Russia announced that effective February 1, it would stop selling oil to countries whose prices were lowered by the EU to $60 a barrel in early December.
- China’s Australian coal ban may be lifted, but no gains are probably small because miners diverted supplies Elsewhere. The ban went into effect in mid-2020 as a result of the deterioration of bilateral relations.
- Belgian prime minister says the country has reached a deal with French energy company Engie to extend the life of two reactors by 10 years and delay nuclear phase-out plans to 2025.
- The Spanish government announced on Monday that it would ask the EU to extend its gas price cap until the end of 2024.
- Overall, the mid-long-term outlook remains rather bullish for 2023. According to RWE, Germany’s top power producer warned that gas and electricity prices in the country would remain at least twice as high as they were before the energy crisis despite government countermeasures.
To read the prior week’s European Energy Market Update, please follow the link here.
