Analys
Bearish momentum may return but strategic buying is starting to kick in

EUA price action: The seeds of the rally may have come from Red Sea troubles, higher freight rates and higher ARA coal prices. Add in record short positioning in EUAs, nat gas being cheap relative to oil in Asia, participants in the EU ETS purchasing EUAs strategically, rising temperature adj. nat gas demand in Europe (though absolute demand still very, very weak due to warm weather) and lastly a weather forecast pointing to more normal temperatures in North West Europe. And ”Bob’s your uncle”, the EUA Dec-24 price rallied 10.8% from EUR 52.2/ton on Feb 26 to EUR 57.84/ton ydy.

It is normal with short-covering rallies in bear markets. What puzzled us a little was the involvement of coal prices in the rally together with nat gas and EUAs. Did the upturn in coal prices come from the Chinese market with participants there maybe sniffing out some kind of imminent, large government stimulus package and front-running the market? No. There has been no rally in iron ore and the upturn in coal prices in Asia have been lagging the upturn in ARA coal prices.
Did the rally come from the Utility side in Europe where Utilities jumped in and bought Coal, Gas and EUAs and selling power against it? Probably not because forward fossil power margins are still very negative.
The most plausible explanation for the upturn in coal prices is thus Red Sea troubles, higher dry freight rates and higher ARA coal prices as a result. ARA coal prices bottomed out on 14 Feb and then started to move higher. The Baltic dry index started to rally already in mid-January. This may have been the seeds which a little later helped to ignite the short-covering rally in nat gas and EUAs. Add in a) Record short positioning in EUA contracts by investment funds with need for short-covering as EUA prices headed higher, b) Japanese LNG trading at only 58% versus Brent crude vs. a 2015-19 average of 73% thus nat gas was cheap vs. oil, c) Participants in the EU ETS starting to buy EUAs strategically because the price was close to EUR 50/ton, d) Gradually improving nat gas demand in Europe in temperature adjusted terms though actual.
Mixed price action this morning. Bearish momentum may return but strategic buying is kicking in. Today the EUA price is falling back a little (-0.3%) along with mixed direction in nat gas prices. The coal-to-gas differential (C-t-G diff) for the front-year 2025 still looks like it is residing at around EUR 47/ton and lower for 2026 and 2027. We expect C-t-G diffs to work as attractors to the EUA price from the power market dynamics side of the equation. Thus if nat gas prices now stabilizes at current levels we should still see bearish pressure on EUAs return towards these C-t-G diff levels. The forward hedging incentive index for power utilities in Germany is still deeply negative with no incentive to lock in forward margins as these largely are negative. Thus no normal purchasing of EUAs for hedging of power margin purposes.
That said however. We do see increasing interest from corporate clients to pick up EUAs for longer-term use and strategic positioning and that will likely be a counter to current bearish power market drivers. Even utilities will likely step in a make strategic purchases of EUAs. Especially those with coal assets. Irrespective of current forward power margins. An EUA price below EUR 60/ton is cheap in our view versus a medium-term outlook 2026/27 north of EUR 100/ton and we are not alone holding the view.
The Baltic dry index (blue) bottomed in mid-Jan and rallied on Red Sea issues. European coal, ARA 1mth coal price (white) bottomed on 14 Feb and then rallied.
ARA 1mth coal price in orange starting to move higher from 14 Feb. EUA Dec-24 price bottomed for now on 26 Feb
Net speculative positioning in EUAs by financial players. Record short
Price of Japanese LNG vs price of TTF nat gas as a spread in EUR/MWh. Rising price of Japanese LNG vs. TTF. But this could be coming from changes in LNG freight rates
Price of Japanese LNG vs. Brent crude traded all the way down to 58% making it cheap in relative terms to oil.
The German forward hedging incentive index just getting more and more negative
Forward EUA prices in green (today’s prices) and the EUA balancing price for Coal power vs Gas power in lilac. The latter is calculated with today’s nat gas prices and closing prices for ARA coal from ydy. In a medium-tight EUA market the Coal-to-Gas differential in lilac will typically be an ”attractor” for the EUA price in terms of power market dynamics.
Analys
Rising with softer USD and positive markets but less bullish tailwind from nat gas

Ticking higher along with softer USD and gains in metals and equities. Brent traded down marginally (-0.2%) yesterday to USD 72.02/b following a 2.4% decline on Wednesday. This morning it is ticking up 0.5% to USD 75.4/b, well aligned with a 0.4% softer USD and solid gains in equities and industrial metals. Technically it is neither overbought nor oversold with RSI at 45. Though it is flirting with the 100dma also being below both the 50dma and the 200dma. So, no obvious strength either. The bullish tailwind from nat gas is fading a bit with TTF nat gas falling sharply to below the price of ICE Gasoil (”diesel”).

Longer-dated prices supported at USD 68/b. But looks like a process of fading strength. The longer-dated contracts for Brent keep trading down towards the high 60ies around USD 68/b but are rejected repeatedly. The pricing for these contracts looks like a process of fading strength. Just oozing closer to the USD 68/b level with smaller and smaller bounces each time. Very clear consumer buying interest for oil products when Brent crude prices move towards the USD 68-70/b level. This support level may thus to some degree come from the consumer side of the market. If oil consuming industry loses confidence in the economy, we might see the longer dated prices break below USD 68-70/b. But oil producers may also have limited interest in hedging downside risk at around the 68-mark. So, selling from that side of the market is probably also fading at that level. But also, sellers/producers may change if the global economy was to look shakier.
Microscopic changes in IEA forecast. OPEC(+) still needs to cut in 2025 to balance market. The IEA made only microscopic adjustments to its oil market balance yesterday. Adjusting production in OECD Europe and FSU production slightly lower resulting in call-on-OPEC going up by 0.2 mb/d versus the previous report. Call-on-OPEC is still set to decline from 27.1 mb/d in 2024 to 26.7 mb/d in 2025. A y-y decline of 0.4 mb/d implying that the group will have to cut production comparably in 2025. OPEC+ is of course planning to lift production by 120 kb/d/month from April onwards. Nope, says the IEA. It has to reduce supply instead.
Front-month and longer dated Brent crude oil prices in USD/b bouncing off the USD 68-70/b level.

European TTF front-month price trading sharply lower following signals that nat gas inventories in Europe may not need to mandatory fill to 90% by 1 November anyhow.

Analys
Climbing crude inventories in line with seasonal patterns

Yesterday’s report from the US DOE revealed an increase of 4.1 million barrels in US crude oil inventories for the previous week. This build exceeded the consensus estimate of 2.5 million barrels whilst less than the API forecast of 9 million barrels reported on Tuesday. As of last week, total US crude inventories stand at 428 million barrels, which represents a decrease of 12 million barrels compared to the same week last year.

In addition, gasoline inventories decreased by 3.0 million barrels, surpassing the consensus estimate of a 0.5-million-barrel drawdown. Conversely, distillate (diesel) inventories saw an increase of 0.135 million barrels, contrary to the expected decline of 1.5 million barrels. In total, commercial inventories (excluding the SPR) – which include crude oil, gasoline, and diesel – rose by 1.2 million barrels.
Refinery utilization improved by 0.5 percentage points, reaching 85% last week. Meanwhile, total products supplied (a proxy for implied demand) over the past four-week period averaged 20.3 million barrels per day, reflecting a 2.8% increase compared to the same period last year.
Additionally, gasoline demand averaged 8.3 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, up by 0.9% from the same period in 2024. Diesel demand averaged 4.2 million barrels per day, showing a significant increase of 13.6% year-on-year. Jet fuel demand also saw an increase of 4.4% compared to the same four-week period in 2024.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) will be releasing its monthly report today at 10:00 CET.


Analys
Crude oil comment: Tariffs spark small reactions, but price gains hold steady

Brent crude prices bottomed out at USD 74.10 per barrel on Thursday evening (February 6th) after a continuous decline since mid-January. Since then, prices have climbed uninterruptedly by USD 2.5 per barrel, reaching the current level of USD 76.50 per barrel.

Since the beginning of 2025, price movements have been more volatile compared to the fourth quarter of 2024. Additionally, the market has broken the firm range-bound levels of USD 70–75 per barrel that prevailed from mid-October 2024 to January 2025.
Brent crude rose by nearly USD 1.50 per barrel yesterday (February 10th), driven by a tighter supply outlook. This has been credited to stricter sanctions resulting in Russia producing below its quota. Meanwhile, the US President recently ordered a 25% tariff on all aluminum and steel imports, including from Canada and Mexico, the country’s top two foreign suppliers. The tariffs are set to take effect on March 12, according to the White House.
At present, Brent crude appears to be holding onto its price gains, with little reaction so far to the latest tariff news, as markets await key US CPI data scheduled for tomorrow (February 12th).
As we highlighted last week (link), there has recently been a significant build-up in US crude inventories, with Canadian crude flows increasing rapidly to meet the tariff deadline, which was originally set for March. However, US industry-based inventory data (API) is due to be released later today, and we expect a slowdown, as Canada negotiated a 30-day delay in the imposition of US tariffs. A 10% import tariff on Canadian oil had been proposed.
On top of that, there is an increasing risk to the Gaza ceasefire deal, as both parties have accused each other of violating the terms of the agreement. The US President has stated that Israel should call off its ceasefire agreement with Hamas if hostages are not returned by this weekend, further contributing to heightened geopolitical tensions, as well as the US’ tougher stance on Iran.
Stay tuned. This week, monthly oil market reports from the EIA (this evening), IEA (Thursday, February 13th), and OPEC (tomorrow, February 12th) will be released.
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