European gas futures rebounded from a 20-month low, slowing LNG flows raised concerns about supply balance

The Zhitong Finance App learned that European gas futures prices began to rise after hitting a 20-month low because traders are evaluating the impact of the slowdown in liquefied natural gas flows on the regional supply balance.

Since December, the import volume of liquefied natural gas from major ports in northwestern Europe and Italy has declined slightly compared to last month. Although mild weather conditions have curtailed heating demand, Europe still needs to continue to attract stable fuel inflows, which has kept gas prices fluctuating within a relatively narrow range this week.

“Europe will need to continue buying liquefied natural gas this winter due to low inventories,” Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) analysts Adan Dennani, Bilaj Borcatria, and Victoria McCulloch wrote in the report. They pointed out that these factors “left room for prices to rise slightly in the first quarter,” but overall market sentiment was still lackluster against the backdrop of increasing global supply.

In terms of the weather situation, according to meteorological forecast analysis, it is expected that during the remaining period of this month, the temperature will be higher than the same period of the year; however, some weather forecasts for January show that there is a possibility that the temperature will cool down in the future.

In terms of inventory conditions, currently, the filling rate of natural gas storage depots has not reached 72%, while the average value for the same period in the past five years was 81%, but recently the extraction rate of natural gas has slowed down.

As of press release, the contract price for Dutch TTF natural gas futures on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) rose 1.3% in January 2026 to close at 26.96 euros per megawatt hour; on the previous trading day, the contract price had dropped to its lowest point since April 2024.