European gas prices on the slide

A gas glut is hitting prices, and the continent’s buyers are benefiting

European gas prices have been struggling for the past year – and so far nothing suggests 2016 will be any better. Weak crude prices, lacklustre demand and rising supply are all to blame. A mild winter also helped push UK natural gas prices to six-year lows. Indeed, at the National Balancing Point (NBP), they’ve fallen by almost 30% in the past three and a half months. Front-month NBP futures were at just £0.27 per therm (equivalent to $4 per 1,000 cubic feet) in mid-March, down from almost £0.38/therm at the beginning of December. Supplies from the UK Continental Shelf and Russia, together with more liquefied natural gas imports from Qatar have weighed on the market. European gas prices more