Sharp increase in European prices

European gas prices increased sharply yesterday, supported by cold weather and weak pipeline supply. Indeed, although they increased yesterday to 300 mm cm/day on average, compared to 286 mm cm/day on Friday, Russian flows were still below the 324 mm cm/day of Thursday as Yamal flows remained below their pre-outage level. As for Norwegian flows, due to planned maintenance works, they dropped again, averaging 310 mm cm/day, compared to 327 mm cm/day on Friday.

The rise in parity prices with coal for power generation (both EUA and coal prices were up) provided additional upward pressure, particularly on curve prices.