{"text":[[{"start":8.45,"text":"European gas prices have surged nearly 50 per cent over the past month, as heatwaves and concerns over winter supplies leave the market particularly sensitive to the latest disruption of energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz. "}],[{"start":22.9,"text":"The benchmark Dutch TTF contract rose to more than €62 per megawatt hour on Wednesday, up about 49 per cent since late June and close to the peaks seen in the early days of the Iran conflict. UK prices have climbed by a similar amount, to 151.29p per therm."}],[{"start":41.05,"text":"By contrast, Brent crude, the international benchmark, has risen about 20 per cent in the same period to just above $93 a barrel on Wednesday. "}],[{"start":50.55,"text":"The rally reflects a tightening of the global gas market, as heatwaves across Europe have increased electricity demand for air conditioning while forcing parts of France’s nuclear fleet to reduce their output, increasing reliance on gas-fired power stations. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":65.45,"text":"Christoph Halser, a gas analyst at energy consultancy Rystad, said the market had become more sensitive to the latest escalation of the US-Iran war — which has slowed traffic through the strait to a trickle — as Europe’s crucial winter heating season approached."}],[{"start":80.65,"text":"“Back in March and April we had just come out of winter and demand was pretty low,” he said. “Now we are running out of time a bit as this year’s winter approaches, so the price is reacting.”"}],[{"start":93.10000000000001,"text":"Europe is also competing for supplies with Asia, where peak summer temperatures have similarly lifted demand for gas-generated electricity. In recent days, several cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) have been diverted from Europe to Asian buyers willing to pay higher prices."}],[{"start":113,"text":"France is expected to receive just 13 LNG cargoes in July, according to price-reporting agency Argus Media, the lowest monthly total in more than five years. A further eight cargoes scheduled to arrive in August have been diverted in recent days, leaving the country expecting 26 shipments that month. An average LNG cargo carries enough gas to supply about 40,000 homes for a year."}],[{"start":136.75,"text":"Halser said while prices are rising in Europe, they are not yet high enough to draw LNG from Asia. "}],[{"start":142.95,"text":"The high cost of gas is also complicating efforts to replenish European storage sites during the summer, when countries typically build reserves ahead of the winter heating season."}],[{"start":153.2,"text":"Germany aims to fill its storage facilities to 70 per cent of capacity by the beginning of November, but they are only 45 per cent full, according to Argus."}],[{"start":163,"text":"Equinor, the Norwegian energy group that is Europe’s largest gas supplier, warned on Wednesday that the region might fail to meet its storage targets before winter, leaving it exposed to sharp price swings when colder weather arrives."}],[{"start":175.9,"text":"“It is a vulnerable situation,” Torgrim Reitan, Equinor’s chief financial officer, told Bloomberg Television. “We are very uncertain about how we will enter the winter.”"}],[{"start":187.3,"text":"The International Energy Agency warned this week that “further delays in resuming Gulf exports risk keeping [gas] markets tighter for longer.”"}],[{"start":196.8,"text":"Rystad’s base-case assumption is that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen before the final quarter of the year, allowing Qatar, one of the world’s largest LNG exporters, to resume full production. But Halser said Europe might not reach its storage targets if the crucial waterway remained closed for longer."}],[{"start":213.25,"text":"He added that high storage levels had become less critical than in the past. Europe has cut annual gas consumption by about 20 per cent following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and has built additional terminals capable of receiving and regasifying LNG."}],[{"start":238.65,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1784762569_3852.mp3"}