Europe faces a tighter gas market as Norwegian field operators enter the scheduled maintenance season.
Any unplanned extension of the maintenance period would cause an imbalance in the continent’s gas markets and lead to price increases, Bloomberg said. reported.
“Europe is already struggling,” Florence Schmit, a European energy strategist at Rabobank, told the publication. “Any deviation from the planned maintenance season can lead to significant fluctuations in gas availability and therefore market prices, especially this year.”
Norway supplies about 30 percent of Europe’s natural gas and has become the largest supplier after most Russian gas supplies were stopped. There is currently a risk that the remaining gas supplies through Ukraine will be cut off following Ukraine’s incursion into Russian territory, which would further tighten supplies.
Bloomberg points out that an extension of the maintenance season for the Norwegian gas fields would not be unusual due to the complexity of the work involved in these operations. “The repairs require careful balancing of pipeline pressure, while it is not unusual for additional work to be discovered due to the complexity of the facilities and the harsh environment of the North Sea,” Bloomberg explained.
“There will always be deviations from the plan; something takes longer or shorter and that affects the rest of the work,” a senior executive at Norwegian gas pipeline operator Gassco told Bloomberg.
Earlier this month, Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, said noticed that the European Union’s gas stocks were 86.7% full and the expected slowdown in filling rates due to the maintenance season in Norway should not really affect the final targets before the heating season. The EU has set a target of filling gas stocks to 90% before the start of winter.
“However, any major disruption in the coming months would increase the need for alternative sources of supply, especially via LNG, and push up prices as Europe competes with Asia and South America,” Hansen added at the time.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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