November Markets Update

UK gas storage has continued to improve this month, reaching 100% capacity, however, Europe’s storage still lagged behind at a mid-70% mark.
Milder temperatures and periods of high wind strength helped to reduce gas demand this month.
In October, Russia began to suggest that they would be willing to increase gas supply into Europe. Although no action has been seen yet, talk of Russian support helped ease anxiety within the market.
Following months of LNG tankers being redirected to Asia due to premium prices, LNG tankers have started to arrive again in Europe, helping to increase supply levels.

Electricity levels continue to follow the gas markets slight relaxation this month.
Periods of high wind strength enabled renewables to make up a greater element of the energy mix, alleviating some of the pressure on supply.
Following the turmoil in recent months, the electricity market showed a relatively calm supply picture with no major issues.

OPEC’s crude oil production rose by 217,000 BPD (barrels per day) to 27.453 million BPD in October but still fell short of the cartel’s share of the 400,000 BPD.
Brent Crude oil prices continued to rise this month, increasing to $82.86 a barrel.
Various countries including Denmark, Costa Rica, France, Ireland, Wales, Sweden, and Quebec have formed an alliance to help phase out the production of oil and gas to tackle climate change. It remains undetermined whether the UK will support the alliance, with Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, saying he wanted to move beyond hydrocarbons completely in the UK.

Despite coal producing around 37% of the world’s electricity in 2019, more than 40 countries have committed to shifting away from coal in pledges made at the COP26 summit.
Signatories have agreed to end all investment in new coal power generation domestically and internationally, agreeing to phase out coal power in the 2030s for major economies and the 2040s for poorer nations.
Thermal coal prices spiked over June through to October following the global surge in energy prices, with the market expected to remain volatile into the first quarter of 2022.