Natural gas
Tankard natural gas indexes greeted with scepticism
Traders show little enthusiasm for Tankard indexes of European natural gas, despite ongoing concerns about the reliability of assessments by price reporting agencies. Gillian Carr reports
TTF benefits from growing liquidity among European gas hubs
Growing liquidity in the European gas market and a gradual edging away from oil and gas indexation are giving a boost to continental gas hubs – with the Dutch Title Transfer Facility emerging as the biggest beneficiary. Gillian Carr reports
Cutting edge: Hedging price and volumetric risks of fixed-price load-serving contracts in natural gas markets
In this article, Ning Zhang and Robert Cumbie propose a utility maximisation method for natural gas marketers to find optimal hedging strategies to deal with price and load uncertainty by using price and weather derivatives. Monte Carlo simulation…
Nucor praised for pursuing natural hedge
US steel maker’s acquisition of natural gas assets is seen as viable long-term hedge and an alternative to derivatives
Natural gas producers step up hedging
Hedging by North American natural gas producers increases as prices rebound
Basis trading to emerge in European gas
Natural gas basis swaps increasingly used in over-the-counter market and could eventually trade on exchanges
US Henry Hub benchmark to drive European, east Asian natural gas prices: report
Growing exports of liquefied natural gas from North America and a more globalised gas market will lead the US’s Henry Hub price benchmark to become the long-term driver of natural gas prices in Europe and east Asia, according to analysts from Citi
Ice’s decision to buy gas exchange bodes well for TTF: analysts
The Title Transfer Facility natural gas hub is expected to see increased market interest, after Ice's decision to acquire a majority share in APX-Endex's gas exchange
New breed of upstream oil & gas firms have increased appetite for hedging
The growth of master limited partnerships in the North American energy sector is creating a new breed of exploration and production companies with an increased appetite for hedging. The biggest of these, Linn Energy, has hedged 100% of its production out…
Sponsored Q&A: APX-Endex
APX-Endex and Fluxys Belgium are working together to reshape the Belgian natural gas market. Christian Moger, APX-Endex’s commercial manager of the Continental spot gas markets, explains how the new market will be structured and what APX-Endex and Fluxys…
Weather study finds that hedging improves firm value
Hedging programmes have a positive effect on a company’s share price and financial performance, according to a new academic study that examines the use of weather derivatives by US utilities
Energy Risk USA 2012
The impact of Dodd-Frank, the future of natural gas markets and the risk of extreme weather were all topics of vigorous discussion at the 2012 Energy Risk USA conference. Alexander Osipovich reports
Energy Risk USA: Storms, warm winter, fuel interest in weather derivatives
The extreme weather that hit North America recently has spurred interest in tools designed to hedge weather risk, according to participants speaking at Energy Risk USA
Low US natural gas prices stir hedging talk
As the boom in North American shale gas production continues to feed an oversupplied market, US natural gas prices sank to 10-year lows last week. Gas consumers are taking a serious look at seizing the opportunity to lock in prices — but remain hesitant…
Energy Risk Deals of the Year 2012: BarCap's VPP deal with Chesapeake
Barclays Capital pioneers new volumetric payment deal with Chesapeake that allows more investors to take part
Cutting edge: Valuation of spread commodity structures
In this paper, Dan Mahoney and Krzysztof Wolyniec show that in co-integrated (mean-reverting) futures markets, active dynamic hedging is required to realise the quadratic variation of the underlying spread process. Using static hedges/portfolios yields…
Is European shale a game-changer for the gas markets?
While shale gas has been a game-changer in the US markets, its impact has been more muted in Europe, with environmental concerns preventing fracking in several countries. Jay Maroo looks at the future of shale gas in Europe and asks how big an impact…
US natural gas price rally set to be short-lived: analysts
Planned production cuts by US natural gas firms will not be enough to keep natural gas prices supported this year, and analysts say that record storage levels and mild weather could push New York Mercantile Exchange Henry Hub prices below $2 per million…
US natural gas hedging: 2012 outlook
Pauline McCallion speaks to natural gas producers and consumers about what’s on the radar that might affect their hedging strategies this year
Gas users lock in low long-term prices
Long-term price risk management deals are becoming more popular with utilities and regulators as a way to lock in low natural gas prices
Outlook for UK natural gas
The traditional contango of the UK natural gas curve has smoothed out in recent weeks, with summer seasons now at parity and the winters either on a par or even dipping into backwardation. Tom Woolley investigates the trend and its likely impact on…
Cutting edge: valuing and dynamically hedging natural gas storage
Natural gas storages are integral parts of gas distribution systems and play a key role in managing demand variations. Risk managers need to value storages on a daily basis, while traders face the challenge of effectively hedging storages. Ali Sadeghi…
Managing oil and gas delivery risk
For producers and suppliers of oil and gas, the standard industry practice of waiting up to two months for payment represents significant credit risk. Brian Shydlo offers some solutions for measuring and mitigating this delivery risk