London — Norway's pipeline gas imports into continental Europe and the UK in August fell back to 7.81 Bcm, down by 7% compared with July, as planned summer maintenance activity began in earnest on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
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Register NowDeliveries averaged 252 million cu m/d in August, data from S&P Global Platts Analytics showed Sept. 4, as some unplanned work at a number of NCS assets -- including at Asgard, Kvitebjorn, Gullfaks and Sleipner -- also impacted flows.
The biggest period of planned NCS maintenance began around the middle of August and is due to continue until the end of September.
An average of around 50 million cu m/d will be lost during the work, though the impact is seen above 100 million cu m/d on days in late September.
"As the second major period of NCS Summer-20 maintenance period got into full swing, the Kollsnes gas processing plant, Visund field and UK's SEGAL entry point all began undergoing work," Platts Analytics said in a note.
Overall NCS pipeline exports dropped to their lowest level since May at just over 200 million cu m/d on Aug. 24. "Heavy maintenance is expected at least until the end of September," it said.
A heavy maintenance schedule in September last year saw Norwegian deliveries slump to just 4.59 Bcm, a 15-year low.
Year-to-date
Norwegian gas exports in the first eight months of 2020 totaled 66.9 Bcm, the data showed, down by around 5% on the 70.7 Bcm supplied in the same period last year.
Norwegian flows have been more resilient than imports into Europe from Russia, which in turn are down around 22% year on year.
Price is no longer likely to be impacting Norwegian operators' decisions on holding back production, with the TTF day-ahead price now trading above Eur10/MWh, well above the short-run marginal cost of Norwegian gas production of around Eur4/MWh.
State-controlled Equinor deferred significant volumes from its swing fields such as Troll in the second quarter on record-low prices. The TTF day-ahead price dipped to just Eur3.10/MWh on May 22, according to Platts price assessments.
Equinor CFO Lars Christian Bacher told analysts on July 24 following the release of the company's Q2 earnings that it was continually optimizing its Norwegian gas portfolio depending on prices.
Asked about Equinor's plans for Norwegian gas output over the remainder of 2020, Bacher said: "It is very, very difficult to answer because we are focusing on value over volume, and how much we're going to push out in time remains to be seen."
"And those decisions are made more or less on a daily basis, dependent on the price," Bacher said.
German, Dutch imports
Flows of Norwegian gas to the Netherlands rose again in August, the sixth consecutive month supplies have increased month on month.
Flows totaled 2.1 Bcm last month, in line with Norwegian gas deliveries to Germany.
For much of 2020, Germany has imported more Norwegian gas than the Netherlands, but now the two have re-converged.
Norwegian flows to the UK dropped back in August, reaching 1.1 Bcm. UK supplies have been below 1.5 Bcm every month since April.
Exports to France rose in August to 1.31 Bcm from 1.27 Bcm in July, while supplies landing in Belgium were flat at 1.19 Bcm.