All posts by mickeybarb@charter.net

Wilson Industrial Sales Changes Name

Eastern Cornbelt, News, News Briefs

Wilson Industrial Sales Company Inc., Rensselaer, Ind., announced on Aug. 1 that it has changed its name to Wilson Chemical Solutions. “We chose the name solutions as a play on words to represent the different services of our business,” said Keegan Wilson, President.

“Our goal is to be the leading partner for your co-product solutions by up-cycling products that may not be core to a business and turning them into a valuable revenue generating stream or by lowering disposal costs, or providing the chemical solutions that are core to each of your operations,” he added. “We have adopted new colors as well that represent our business’ dedication to the environment and sustainability.

“We will continue to strive to deliver the utmost value to our customers/suppliers with safety, accountability, and the excellent service they have to come to know,” added Wilson.

Petrobras Fertilizer Units Sale Said to Attract Yara, EuroChem, CSN

Brazil, News, News Briefs, Norway, Russia

The latest attempts to sell two Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) fertilizer units in Brazil are attracting the interest of firms including European crop nutrient giant Yara International ASA, Russian fertilizer maker EuroChem Group AG, and Brazil steel and iron ore producer Cia Siderugica Nacional SA (CSN), according to Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter.

Yara said it does not comment on market speculation, while Petrobras declined to comment. CSN and EuroChem did not immediately reply to emailed requests for comment.

Once a significant fertilizer player, Petrobras, Brazil’s state-owned oil company, opted to exit the market in 2018, but the divestment process has proved challenging. Now there is renewed interest after the war in Ukraine disrupted global supplies and propelled prices to multi-year highs.

Petrobras held talks with Yara for more than a year over the sale of Araucaria Nitrogenados, a plant known as ANSA in the southern state of Parana, some of the sources said. But last week the Petrobras Board unanimously rejected a bid from the Oslo-based firm, according to sources.

With daily production capacity of 1,975 mt of urea and 1,303 mt of ammonia, ANSA was mothballed in early 2020 after a series of losses since being acquired in 2013. Yara is still interested in the plant, with an Aug. 19 vote for new Petrobras Board of Directors reopening the door to approval, one of the sources said.

The sale of the other unit, nitrogen fertilizer maker UFN-III in Mato Grosso do Sul state, has resumed after a prospective deal with Russia’s Acron PJSC was aborted in April (GM April 29, p. 30). One hard-and-fast requirement for the buyer is a commitment to complete UFN-III construction works. UFN-III has been under construction since 2011, and at last report was 81% complete. A deal by Acron to buy both of the plants fell through in 2019 (GM Nov. 27, 2019).

Now UFN-III is attracting interest from CSN, EuroChem, and Yara, among others, although the process is still in early stages and no proposals have been made, said one source. In April, Unigel CEO Roberto Noronha Santos told Reuters that the Brazilian company is also interested in UFN-III. Unigel, a chemical and fertilizer maker, already has two long-term leases for two other Petrobras nitrogen fertilizer plants (GM Nov. 22, 2019).

Located in the city of Três Lagoas in Mato Grosso do Sul state, UFN-III has a projected urea capacity of 3,600 mt/d of urea, or nearly 20% of Brazil’s apparent consumption in 2020, plus 2,200 mt/d of ammonia, with a consumption of 2.2 million cubic meters of natural gas a day.

Petrobras wants to divest non-core assets to focus on the so-called pre-salt offshore region, which holds its largest and most profitable hydrocarbon discoveries.

U.S. Natural Gas Surges with LNG Terminal Poised for Fast Restart; Europe to Benefit

Europe, Natural Gas, News, News Briefs, Texas

U.S. natural gas prices surged after a key export terminal in Texas reached an agreement with regulators to restart as soon as October, according to Bloomberg.

Freeport LNG, which was shut down in June after an explosion, has entered into an agreement with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to resume operations in early October at almost full capacity, the operator said in an emailed statement. That would boost demand for natural gas by nearly 2 billion cubic feet a day, equivalent to roughly 2% of domestic output.

While Freeport had already indicated that it planned to resume operations in October, the news surprised traders, who expected a more gradual restart after PHMSA, as the regulator is known, demanded a series of corrective actions from Freeport. 

“The partial restart is bigger than previously expected,” said Brayton Tom, a Senior Risk Manager for Energy at StoneX Group Inc. 

The restart of Freeport LNG is poised to increase the strain on U.S. inventories of the heating and power-generation fuel ahead of winter. Concern about tight supplies has triggered volatility and led prices to more than double this year. Gas held in salt caverns and depleted aquifers is about 12% below levels typically seen for this time of the year, and booming domestic demand this summer has limited suppliers’ ability to add gas to storage. 

“We previously had Freeport only returning to partial service in November, and the extra feedgas demand that is likely puts longer odds on the bearish side of the market,” said David Seduski, an analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd.

The restart of Freeport LNG should come as a relief for Europe, which desperately needs extra U.S. gas. Reduced imports from Russia amid the war in Ukraine have sparked fears of a supply crunch this winter, sending prices in the region skyrocketing. 

Gas for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange settled up 7.3% at $8.266/mmBtu on Aug. 3, after earlier rising as much as 10%.

Compass Points to Salt for 3Q Loss; Fertilizer a Bright Spot

Earnings, News, Southern Plains, Specialty

Compass Minerals, Overland Park, Kan., pointed to its Salt segment in reporting a loss from continuing operations of $10.7 million ($0.32 per diluted share) for the third quarter ending June 30, compared to a year-ago loss of $16.4 million ($0.49 per share). Adjusted EBITDA declined to $28.9 million from $33.3 million.

“We achieved third-quarter revenue growth of 8% year over year, enabled by targeted pricing actions across our product portfolio and higher Salt segment sales volumes,” said Kevin S. Crutchfield, Compass President and CEO. “While this represented an improvement in our top-line performance, profitability levels came in significantly below our earnings potential – particularly within our Salt segment – as we continued to be impacted by increased production and distribution unit costs.

“With the North America highway salt bid season well underway, we have successfully begun the process of restoring the Salt segment’s profitability through a value-based strategy aimed at optimizing geography and mix while passing through substantial inflationary costs incurred year to date. We also continue to advance our strategy to expand our essential minerals portfolio into new and attractive, adjacent markets – namely lithium and next-generation fire retardants,” Crutchfield added.

The company had a third-quarter net loss of $7.9 million ($0.23 per share) versus a year-ago net income of $57.1 million ($1.63 per share). Adjusted EBITDA was $32 million, down from $41.8 million. Third-quarter sales were $214.7 million, up from $199.4 million.

Plant Nutrition second-quarter operating earnings were $10.6 million on sales of $55.6 million, up from the year-ago $700,000 and $53.8 million, respectively. EBITDA was $19.4 million, up from $9.8 million. Average fertilizer prices were $827/st on sales volumes of 67,000 st, compared to the year-ago $610/st and 88,000 st, respectively.

Nine-month Plant Nutrition operating earnings were $24.5 million on sales of $164.5 million, up from the year-ago $9.3 million and $185.7 million, respectively. EBITDA was $50.9 million, up from $36.2 million. Average fertilizer prices were $735/st on sales volumes of 224,000 st compared to the year-ago $572/st and 325,000 st, respectively.

The company had a nine-month net loss from continuing operations of $31.8 million ($0.94 per share) on sales of $994.7 million, compared to the year-ago income of $40.2 million ($1.15 per share) and $934.1 million, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA was $152.1 million, down from $207.8 million.

The company reported a net loss of $17.6 million ($0.52 per share) compared to the year-ago loss of $129.2 million ($3.83 per share). Adjusted EBITDA was $171.1 million, down from $252.7 million.

Compass has narrowed its annual guidance for adjusted EBITDA to $175-$195 million from $170-$200 million. It said year-to-date margin compression due to higher costs is expected to continue through the balance of the year in the Salt segment, as the company continues efforts to restore profitability. Plant Nutrition results for the balance of the year are expected to continue to be primarily influenced by production performance and pricing dynamics.

In Plant Nutrition, full-year volumes are expected to be 270-280,000 st, while second-half revenue is projected at $98-$108 million and EBITDA at $37-$43 million.

Full-year Salt volumes are expected to be 12.3-12.6 million st, with second-half revenue at $320-$340 million and EBITDA at $55-$65 million.

OCI 2Q Income Up 322%; Euro AA Production at 40%; Much Gas Locked in at Lower Prices

Ammonia, Ammonium Sulfate, Calcium Ammonium Nitrate, Earnings, Europe, Featured, Methanol, News, UAN, Urea

OCI NV, Amsterdam, reported second-quarter adjusted net income attributable to shareholders of $527.5 million ($2.510 per share) on revenues of $2.86 billion, up 322% from the year-ago $125.1 million ($0.596 per share) and $1.46 billion, respectively. Gross profit was $1.17 billion, up from $404.6 million, while adjusted EBITDA was $1.29 billion, up from $535.4 million.

“We are pleased with these financial results that have enabled us to accelerate our shareholder cash returns to almost $1.1 billion this year, while also substantially reducing gross debt and further lowering leverage to well within our investment grade financial policy parameters,” said Ahmed El-Hoshy, OCI CEO. “This also positions us favorably to selectively pursue value-creative growth opportunities including organic expansions below replacement cost.

“The outlook for the fundamentals of our nitrogen end markets continues to be underpinned by tight supply, healthy farm economics, and decades of low grain stocks globally that incentivize the use of nitrogen fertilizers,” he added. “Forward curves imply that natural gas prices in Europe will remain at elevated levels through at least 2023, setting ammonia, urea, and nitrates breakeven pricing well above historical averages.

“Many European producers cannot recover cash costs due to high gas prices, especially those that cannot import ammonia,” said El-Hoshy. “We benefit from our leading position in global ammonia markets and our flexibility to replace locally produced ammonia with imported ammonia shipped from our operations in North Africa and the U.S. through our Rotterdam terminal.

“We are now running our ammonia production platform in Europe at 40% of capacity because of the high gas prices, but are able to operate our downstream production profitably with support from our imported ammonia,” he continued. “As a result, we remain able to satisfy the demand of our agricultural and industrial customers in Europe.” He added that the company’s methanol plant in The Netherlands remains shut due to high gas prices.

El-Hoshy said OCI has hedged 50% of its gas requirements in the U.S. for the period 2023 – 2029 at a weighted average of $4.3/mmBtu, and for August-December 2022 it is hedged 60% at a weighted average price of $5.3/mmBtu, which compares to the Henry Hub benchmark of on average $8.1/mmBtu in second-quarter 2022. Company-wide, he said the company has price visibility on more than 90% of its global natural gas requirements as a result of favorable gas supply agreements at Fertiglobe and the hedge position in the U.S. He noted that less than 10% of its natural gas supply is exposed to market fluctuations in Europe.

Second-quarter Nitrogen segment operating profit was $986.5 million on revenues of $2.59 billion, up from the year-ago $312.3 million and $1.19 billion, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.12 billion, up from $445.1 billion.

U.S. nitrogen operating profit was $167.7 million on revenues of $506.1 million, up from $49.5 million and $237.6 million, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA was $215.6 million, up from $86.5 million.

OCI six-month adjusted net income was $881.7 million ($4.196 per share) on revenue of $5.19 billion, up from the year-ago $227.5 million ($1.084 per share) and $2.58 billion, respectively. Gross profit was $2.03 billion, up from $745 million, while adjusted EBITDA was $2.26 billion, up from $987.2 million.

Six-month Nitrogen segment operating profit was $1.72 billion on revenue of $4.66 billion, up from the year-ago $525.2 million and $2.04 billion, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA was $1.97 billion, up from $782.2 billion.

U.S. nitrogen operating profit was $282.8 million on revenue of $959.8 million, up from the year-ago $93.4 million and $341.5 million, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA was $368.2 million, up from $166.2 million.

Product Sales Volumes (000 mt)

Own Product 2Q-22 2Q-21 YTD-22 YTD-21
Ammonia 547.6 517.9 934.3 1,104.9
Urea 1,192.7 1,137.6 2,234.8 2,240.8
CAN 276.8 318.4 568.2 646.8
UAN 426.1 443.9 755.7 723.8
Total Fertilizer 2,443.2 2,417.8 4,493.0 4,716.3
Melamine 30.1 32.8 61.1 67.0
DEF 217.7 186.0 443.9 336.8
Total Nitrogen 2,691.0 2.636.6 4,998.0 5,120.1
Methanol 370.5 594.7 652.0 1,101.8
Total Own Prod. 3,061.5 3,231.3 5,650.0 6,221.9
Traded Third Party        
Ammonia        61.4 80.2 118.6 121.2
Urea 403.4 501.9 853.2 722.4
UAN 58.7 6.9 83.0 20.5
Methanol 74.2 20.7 218.3 99.4
AS 191.7 114.1 285.8 232.6
DEF 110.6 79.2 195.7 139.1
Total Third Party 900.0 803.0 1,754.6 1,335.2
Total 3,961.5 4,034.3 7,404.6 7,557.1

Plant Response Inc. – Management Brief

Management Briefs, Southeast, Specialty, Tampa

Plant Response Inc., Research Triangle Park, N.C., which was recently acquired by The Mosaic Co. (GM March 4, p. 26), Tampa, has announced new team members as its biologicals business continues to grow.

Matt Sowder is the company’s new Director of Global Agronomy. He is responsible for building and leading the global agronomy team to support new product development, assessment, and trialing, as well as positioning and training as product nears commercialization. He will be based in Memphis, Tenn.

Jennifer Lilly joins Plant Response as Director of Regulatory and Government Affairs. She will shepherd the company’s expanding product registrations through global review, as well as represent the company in key industry and regulatory discussions. Lilly will be based in the Research Triangle Park.

Anthony Finke joins the company as Regional Sales Manager. He will lead growth across the company’s product lines in the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. He has over a decade of experience in the industry, including sales roles with Chief Agri and Syngenta. Finke will be based in Kearney, Neb.

Nutrien Loses Deduction Fight in Tax Court

News, News Briefs, Potash, Saskatchewan

Nutrien Ltd., Saskatoon, cannot deduct millions of dollars in tax payments when calculating its income tax, a court in Canada has ruled, according to Bloomberg Law.

A 1974 law barring royalties and taxes to provincial governments from being used for tax deductions applies to over C$59.4 million ($46.2 million) in payments made by legacy Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. to the Saskatchewan government, Tax Court of Canada Justice John Owen wrote in a judgment posted Aug. 3 in the case Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. v. The Queen. Potash Corp. merged with Agrium Ltd. in 2018 to form Nutrien.

Owen rejected Potash Corp.’s view that the prohibition did not apply because the payments were not linked to producing potash. “The base payments are payments by the appellant to the Crown in right of Saskatchewan that are inextricably linked to mining and producing potash in Saskatchewan,” Owen wrote.

The Canada Revenue Agency rejected Potash Corp.’s use of the payments for deductions when the firm calculated its income for the 1999-2002 taxation years. The audits blocking the deductions were issued between 2015 and 2019.

The payments were made under Saskatchewan’s Potash Production Tax Schedule, which applies to companies mining potash in the province.

Potash Corp. challenged the audits at the Tax Court of Canada, arguing that the 1974 rule did not apply to the payments because the payments were tied to potash sales and were not related to the acquisition, development, or ownership of a resource property or the production of minerals.

However, Owen found “there is a direct and immediate connection between the production of potash and the subsequent sale or disposition of that potash. To find otherwise would be to ignore the commercial objective of any mining venture,” he wrote.

Nutrien declined comment on the decision on Aug. 3.

CF Beats Analysts on Adjusted EBITDA, Falls Short on Net Income, Sales

Ammonia, Ammonium Nitrate, Earnings, Eastern Cornbelt, Featured, News, UAN, Urea

CF Industries Holdings Inc., Deerfield, Ill.,  reported adjusted EBITDA of $1.95 billion for the second quarter ending June 30, besting the Bloomberg Consensus, the average estimate from major analysts, which was $1.87 billion. Year-ago adjusted EBITDA was $599 million.

CF missed analyst estimates on net income and net sales. Second-quarter net income was $1.17 billion ($5.58 per diluted share) on net sales of $3.39 billion, up from the year-ago $246 million ($1.14 per share) and $1.59 billion, respectively.

Analysts had net income at $1.3 billion and net sales at $3.5 million. Results for the quarter included pre-tax restructuring charges of $162 million related to the company’s U.K. operations, which included the permanent closure of its Ince facility (GM June 10, p. 1). The amount included both impairment charges and a charge for post-employment benefits.

Second-quarter gross margin was $1.4 billion, up from $1.09 billion. CF sold 4.84 million st during the quarter, down from the year-ago 5.17 million st.

“The CF Industries team delivered a strong operational performance and leveraged our manufacturing and logistics flexibility to drive outstanding results in the first half of 2022, despite weather-related challenges during the North American planting and fertilizer application season,” said Tony Will, CF President and CEO. “We continue to believe it will take several years to replenish global grains stocks, underscoring the critical role CF Industries plays supplying nutrients to farmers around the world during a period when marginal producers in Europe and Asia face production curtailments due to historically high natural gas prices.”

Bert Frost, CF Senior Vice President of Sales, Market Development, & Supply Chain, told analysts that CF achieved record average selling prices for all segments, even as poor weather affected the North American planting and application season.

“As we look ahead to the second half of the year, we believe the environment will remain favorable for our company,” he said. “European and Asian producers are facing extremely high natural gas costs, creating supply uncertainty at a time of resilient agricultural led demand. Last week, prices at the Dutch TTF natural gas hub exceeded $60/mmBtu. This would put ammonia production cost for efficient plants in Europe above $2,000/mt.” He added this is why we have seen several producers such as Yara International, BASF, and OCI curtail ammonia production.

On the demand side, Frost suggested another 3-4 million acres of corn may be planted in the U.S. next year.

Will reiterated to analysts CF’s desire to participate in the green energy aspects of low carbon ammonia, and he indicated a preference for greenfield projects going forward after having done several debottlenecks in the past. “It really makes more sense to invest in new capacity at this point than it does to continue to try and squeeze more out of what’s already there, because you end up hitting limits on heat exchangers and other things that end up with reliability problems,” said Will. While he said the company is very proud of its reliability and on-stream factor of its network, it is more likely to see CF doing new plants than debottlenecks at this time.

Six-month net income was $2.05 billion ($9.78 per share) on net sales of $6.3 billion, up from the year-ago $397 million ($1.83 per share) and $2.64 billion, respectively. Gross margin was $2.57 billion versus the year-ago $1.84 billion. Adjusted EBITDA was $3.6 billion, up from $997 million.

CF sold 9.46 million st during the first half, down from the year-ago 9.74 million st.

Production (000 st) 2Q-22 2Q-21 YTD-22 YTD-21
Ammonia        2,470 2,232 5,083 4,711
Gran Urea 1,157 968 2,231 2,152
UAN 32 1,633 1,628 3,498 3,317
AN 399 449 804 924
Ammonia 2Q-22 2Q-21 YTD-22 YTD-21
Net Sales ($/M) 1,115 459 1,755 665
Gross Margin ($/M) 673 126 1,033 252
Sales Volumes (000 st) 1,035 1,036 1,762 1,719
Avg Selling Price ($/st) 1,077 443 996 387
Gas Costs ($/mmBtu) 7.05 3.25 6.79 3.24
Gran Urea 2Q-22 2Q-21 YTD-22 YTD-21
Net Sales ($/M) 833 433 1,598 832
Gross Margin ($/M) 473 192 968 327
Sales Volumes (000 st) 1,181 1,092 2,277 2,412
Avg Selling Price ($/st) 705 397 702 345
UAN 2Q-22 2Q-21 YTD-22 YTD-21
Net Sales ($/M) 976 434 1,991 666
Gross Margin ($/M) 633 138 1,303 140
Sales Volumes (000 st) 1,626 1,949 3,454 3,463
Avg Selling Price ($/st) 600 223 576 192
AN 2Q-22 2Q-21 YTD-22 YTD-21
Net Sales ($/M) 253 136 476 241
Gross Margin ($/M) 102 16 154 26
Sales Volumes (000 st) 436 501 864 939
Avg Selling Price ($/st) 580 271 551 257
Other 2Q-22 2Q-21 YTD-22 YTD-21
Net Sales ($/M) 212 126 437 232
Gross Margin ($/M) 110 31 231 47
Sales Volumes (000 st) 557 596 1,102 1,205
Avg Selling Price ($/st) 381 211 397 193

Fertilizers Europe, OCI Point to Ammonia Curtailments; Gas Concerns Continue

Europe, Featured, Natural Gas, News, Russia, U.S.

OCI NV, Amsterdam, on Aug. 2 joined other major European ammonia producers, including Yara International ASA and BASF (GM July 29, p. 1), in acknowledging that it has ammonia production offline due to high natural gas prices. OCI in its earnings release (see related story) said it is operating at 40% of capacity, but that it is well-positioned to bring in imports in order to produce downstream products.

“In Europe, we estimate that around 7 million mt of ammonia capacity out of a total of 19 million mt is currently shut due to high gas prices, and given elevated futures and risk associated with Russian gas supply, more capacity may be shut down since selling prices remain below gas-based production costs,” OCI CEO Ahmed El-Hoshy told analysts in the company earnings call.

Producer group Fertilizers Europe on Aug. 2 said it counts over 10 European fertilizer plants that have curtailed or closed in July due to high natural gas prices. However, the group said that the situation does not justify the E.U.’s actual or future suspension of the existing, well-established, and justified tariff and trade defense measures applied today. It said the E.U. needs to support a strong local fertilizer supply as the best guarantee of fair and free competition for fertilizer supply to farmers and their provision of food security and food supply to European citizens and the wider world.

Giant U.S. producer CF Industries Holdings Inc., however, believes a European tariff cut is on the way. “I do see a tariff cut coming to Europe, they’ve already announced they’re working on urea and ammonia, and we would expect UAN would be in the same position just because of the need of the tons and the requirements of Europe to meet their agricultural fertilizer needs,” CF Senior Vice President and CFO Chris Bohn told analysts on Aug. 2. The E.U. imposed definitive antidumping duties on UAN imported into its member countries from Russia, the U.S. and Trinidad and Tobago in 2019 (GM Oct. 11, 2019).

CF also said that it has built its largest export book ever across all of its products. Fellow U.S. producer Nutrien Ltd. also reported that it has been exporting UAN, with plans to also export ammonia.

In the meantime, European natural gas headed for a third weekly gain as persistent concerns over Russian supply heighten the risk of shortages, according to Bloomberg. Benchmark futures slipped on Aug. 5, but were about 3% higher for the week. Prices surged after Moscow last week slashed supplies through the key Nord Stream pipeline to just 20% of its capacity, citing issues with equipment. But Kremlin insiders have privately said that the cuts are to pressure the E.U. over sanctions on Russia, while Berlin has repeatedly said it sees no technical reasons for the reduced flows.

The cuts are reverberating through Europe, lowering industrial output, driving up inflation to the highest in decades, and threatening to push major economies into recession. The E.U. has been racing to stockpile gas for the winter, cutting fuel consumption and boosting imports of liquefied natural gas. The bloc has filled about 71% of its storage sites, in line with the five-year average, which has helped keep prices from rising even further.

“The market appears to have consolidated a bit following the massive increases caused by the reduced flows on Nord Stream,” analysts at trading firm Energi Danmark said in a note. “Further price jumps are, however, very likely if gas supply from Russia to the E.U. cedes completely.”

The reduction in Russian flows to Europe has helped push up LNG prices everywhere, increasing costs for the E.U. and other major buyers, analysts at Morgan Stanley said in a note. “With no easy path to meeting Europe’s rising call on LNG, we expect global prices to remain elevated and volatile,” they said.

Dutch front-month gas, the European benchmark, was 1.3% lower at 196.58 Euros per megawatt-hour by 1:16 p.m. in Amsterdam. The UK equivalent contract slipped 0.9%, but is also poised for a third weekly advance.

In related news, one of Nord Stream’s turbines – critical to boosting flows through the link – is still in Germany following repairs in Canada, amid a stand-off over its return to Gazprom PJSC. The Kremlin said on Aug. 4 that it would like to get the unit back, but the company needs documents to show that it isn’t subject to international sanctions. Three more turbines that are still in Russia and need maintenance could be subject to the same sanctions risks, according to Gazprom.

“Anything that the Russians are saying on this is basically an excuse not to provide gas to the European Union,” said Eric Mamer, spokesman for the European Commission. “Of course, there is blackmail on the side of Russia when it comes to the supply of energy.”

Traders also remain on edge as several gas facilities that are crucial for Norwegian supplies to the U.K. and continental Europe are scheduled to start seasonal maintenance next week. The works would add to the market’s tightness.

Still, there is some better supply news from elsewhere. A major LNG export terminal in the U.S. (see related story), shut this year after a blast, signaled this week that it could restart in early October at almost full capacity. That should bring a relief to Europe just before winter demand starts to kick in.