MARKET INSIGHT: Europe's Yawning Price Gap

摘要

"All good things come in threes," is an old English saying that has not rung true for the world's gas producers over the past year. In Europe, long-term contract prices linked to oil have been at or above $12 per million Btu since October, yet spot prices since December have been around $3 lower on all the continent's major traded hubs — indeed, $4 lower this week. This is not good news for Russia's Gazprom or Norway's Statoil, already smarting from weak gas demand in 2011 (see p4).