European natural gas prices declined on Monday, ending a charge higher last week that left the Title Transfer Facility (TTF) to close at its highest level since December.
TTF finished near $13 on Friday after Ukrainian troops pushed into Russia, where fighting broke out near key gas infrastructure. The incursion continued Monday, but natural gas continued to flow into Ukraine via the Sudzha intake point at Russia’s western border, and on to Europe. The market also was still bracing for the possibility of a retaliatory strike by Iran against Israel for the assassination of senior Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
For now, however, fundamentals have remained largely unchanged, and TTF fell 2% Monday. Norwegian exports were flowing near capacity to the continent and other supplies remained stable. Storage inventories were at 87.3% of capacity on Monday, compared to the five-year average of 77.2% for this time of year.
