European gas prices fell despite Norwegian outages, with weak Chinese LNG demand easing supply concerns ahead of winter, ING's commodity experts Ewa Manthey and Warren Patterson note.

LNG send-outs rise in September

"European natural Gas prices also weakened yesterday, with the Title Transfer Facility (TTF) front-month contract settling 1.7% lower on the day. This weakness comes despite some unplanned outages at the Nyhamna processing plant and Troll field in Norway. Instead, the market appears focused on continued weakness in Asian LNG demand, specifically from China."

"Weaker Chinese LNG demand is expected to help alleviate supply concerns for Europe as the winter period approaches. EU LNG send-outs have been trending higher through much of September, after a somewhat weak August. EU Gas storage stands just shy of 83% full, down from 94% at the same stage last year, and below the 5-year average of 89%."