ICE sees new record daily traded TTF gas futures, options on June 15

Commodity exchange operator ICE saw a new record number of TTF gas futures and options traded for a single day on June 15, an ICE spokesperson said June 16.

A record 660,504 TTF futures and options contracts were traded June 15, including an all-time daily high for TTF futures of 575,970 contracts. "TTF had another record volume day yesterday [June 15]," the spokesperson said.

Open interest in TTF futures and options is currently 2.88 million contracts, up by 48% year on year and by 79% since the start of 2023.

The record trading on ICE comes amid renewed European gas price volatility. The TTF month-ahead price rose by more than 30% intraday on June 15, hitting a peak of almost Eur50/MWh before falling back.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the TTF month-ahead price at Eur41.03/MWh on June 15, up by 8% on the day.

Prices remain highly volatile, with the TTF month-ahead price trading down at around Eur35/MWh early June 16, according to ICE data.

Overall, European gas prices are up sharply since the beginning of June having hit a more than two-year low of Eur23.25/MWh on June 1.

Since then, there have been three pronounced spikes, and two smaller falls, as market uncertainties persist.

Nyhamna work

Concerns over Norwegian supply have played a big part in the price movements upward.

The TTF month-ahead price jumped by almost 17% on June 13 after maintenance at the key Nyhamna gas processing facility was extended by more than three weeks until July 15.

Analysts at S&P Global Commodity Insights said in a report June 14 that the price rises and tightening European market balance highlighted the "ongoing precariousness of the European supply situation."

Nyhamna processes gas from the Ormen Lange and Aasta Hansteen fields, which also remain shut in while the extended maintenance at the processing plant takes place.

Shell serves as the technical service provider for the Nyhamna plant, while Gassco is operator for the facility.

Nyhamna was taken offline on May 19 for annual maintenance impacting all of its 80 million cu m/d of capacity.

It had been expected back on June 14, but the restart was pushed back first to June 21 and then to July 15.

Shell said that during the planned maintenance work at Nyhamna, gas formation with hydrogen was discovered during cleaning of a water-based cooling system in the process plant.

All non-critical work at the facility was stopped and an investigation group established, Shell said.

Nyhamna became operational in 2007 initially to process gas from Ormen Lange, with gas from Aasta Hansteen now also delivered via the Polarled pipeline into the facility.

Gas from the Dvalin field -- currently also shut in -- will also feed into Nyhamna.