Europe's Gas storage facilities are filling up: they are now more than 77% full, reducing the gap to the usual filling level (based on the 5-year average) to 8.4 percentage points, Scotiabank's Chief FX Strategists Shaun Osborne and Eric Theoret report.

Gas prices remain volatile

"As a reminder, at the end of May, the gap was still 12.5 percentage points. Germany is catching up, but remains a laggard with a filling level of just over 70%: The gap to the usual filling level here is just over 15 percentage points. The fact that Gas-fired power plants in the EU were used less in August than in the previous year is also likely to have played a role in the recent faster build-up of reserves."

"According to data from the ISE Fraunhofer Institute, Gas-fired public net electricity generation in the EU was 2.4% below the previous year's level. However, this is mainly due to lower electricity generation respectively lower electricity demand, while the share of Gas-fired power in electricity generation remained roughly the same. Gas demand from electricity generation could also be weaker in September."

"According to BNEF, at least, the month is starting with the prospect of plenty of wind power. European Gas prices, which have given up some of their gains from the second half of August, were trading at a low of just EUR 31 per MWh. However, they have been rising again since Thursday. This confirms once more that volatility on the European Gas market remains high."