Front-month gas indexes slump in December

摘要

Argus’ European front-month prices settled much lower for January than they had for December, after Russia and Ukraine reached a preliminary agreement guar- anteeing uninterrupted gas transit deliveries to Europe through Ukraine from the start of this year. The potential for a sustained interruption to Russian pipeline deliveries through Ukraine from 1 January had propped up prices for delivery in January- March until mid-December. But the prospect of no disruption to Ukrainian transit pressured European hub prices from the front of the curves, raising the possibil- ity that storage withdrawals would barely be needed again this month, with the power sector required to absorb as much supply as possible.