Norway’s oil and gas major Equinor—which provides around 25 percent of the European Union’s (EU) natural gas demand—aims to play a more active role in selling its natural gas on the European market and take advantage of spot market prices where profitable.
That’s the message which Equinor’s top management conveyed to the market and analysts regarding natural gas sales on the conference call on the Q2 financials this week.
Most Norwegian gas sold on the European market is delivered to Germany, the UK, Belgium, and France, where Norwegian gas accounts for between 20 and 40 percent of total gas consumption.
Despite plans for more exposure to the spot market, Equinor saw in Q2 and will continue to see in Q3 benefits from forward sales of its gas, the managers said on the call.....MUCH MORE
“We have sold and are benefiting then from the long-term gas sales as of this quarter,” Svein Skeie, Equinor’s Senior Vice President for Performance Management and Analysis, said.
Equinor sold its natural gas at US$5.49 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) in Q2, compared to an average price of US$4.09 for the UK National Balancing Point (NBP) benchmark price. Equinor’s gas price realizations will still be above the NBP price in Q3, Skeie said.
According to Lars Christian Bacher, Equinor’s Executive Vice President and chief financial officer, “the shift that we’re doing is that we want to expose more to the spot market...."
Exposure to spot rather than contracting longer term eh?
See also the outro from "Unstable Gases: Market Shocks and Qatari LNG" and that from "Facebook Is Dying, Libra Won’t Save It, & Wall Street Is Clueless" (FB) as well.