The week started off with both European and UK gas markets continuing to hold a narrow trading range, reflecting steady fundamentals and muted volatility across gas and power curves. However, on Wednesday afternoon it was confirmed German gas company SEFE had allocated 3 terawatt hours (TWh) of natural gas storage space at its Rehden facility, the entire volume it had offered at an auction. The storage facility has been under scrutiny as its refills have been lagging behind this summer. Not only this but US President Donald Trump announced further tariffs on India for buying Russian crude, however showed no signs of threatening flows of the heating and power generation fuel causing the market to fall before close. The bearish momentum has continued so far on Thursday as it is now expected that Presidents Trump and Putin will meet in the coming weeks pushing the potential that a positive step towards peace in Ukraine is nearing after three and a half years of conflict.
According to Bloomberg, President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday exchanged “signals” with Trump on the war in Ukraine at Kremlin talks with US envoy Steve Witkoff. The Kremlin is weighing options for a concession that could include an air truce with Ukraine. While any Russia-related action is unlikely to have a direct impact on European gas balances, traders are on alert for any threats to global supply. Should Trump and Putin meet it will be the first summit between leaders of the two countries since 2021. Regardless of this the U.S. is continuing its preparations to impose secondary sanctions, potentially including China, to pressure Moscow to end the war in Ukraine.
Looking at the fundamental picture, supply remains stable with Norwegian flows above 300mcm until the next wave of maintenance at the end of the month. LNG continues to arrive to Europe despite some Asian LNG demand concern and Europe’s gas storage sites are 70.35% full, according to the latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe. From a demand perspective the mild and windy conditions have weighed on levels however temperatures are picking up from the end of the week. Finally, despite the attack on Ukrainian gas infrastructure yesterday, gas has continued to flow through the Orlovka interconnector in southern Ukraine.
Flagship Energy’s Tejal Shah Energy Markets Update – 7th August 2025 appeared first on Energy Live News.