Norway Outage Widens Europe Gas Storage Gap

What happened

Shell extended the outage at Norway's Ormen Lange field, reducing output by 40% (8.9 million cubic metres per day). This extends the storage gap to 14.79 billion cubic metres compared to last year. Prices rose 6.7% to US$20.1 per million British thermal units.

Why it matters

The outage costs Europe the equivalent of 11 to 12 LNG cargoes at a time when storage is already low. Rising prices and Middle East tensions keep markets on edge, while US inventories remain high.