Due to positive winter supply outlook, European natural gas prices have fallen for the third consecutive week.

Due to increasing confidence in Europe's winter natural gas supply, the region's natural gas prices are expected to continue their third consecutive week of decline. European natural gas benchmark futures fell sharply on Thursday, rebounded on Friday, but still fell 4% for the week. According to reports yesterday, Ukraine is negotiating with European countries to supply natural gas from Azerbaijan as the transit agreement with Moscow is set to expire. A few European countries, including Slovakia and Austria, still receive Russian natural gas through Ukraine. Although the termination of the current transit agreement is almost inevitable, the region's storage is full and efforts are still being made to find alternative supplies, including from Azerbaijan. Europe is also receiving liquefied natural gas from around the world, but faces fierce competition in terms of shipping with Asia. Research firm BloombergNEF stated this week that Europe will need to attract 54% of the global flexible liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply pool this winter, slightly lower than last winter's 56%. Bloomberg analyst Lujia Cao stated in a report, "If the winters in North Asia and Northwest Europe are very cold, Europe could completely deplete its storage and require fierce competition for spot LNG." However, BloombergNEF also stated in another report this week that under average temperatures, Europe will end the winter with 40% of storage levels, higher than the five-year average. As of the time of writing, the European natural gas benchmark Dutch TTF gas has risen by 4.08% to 34.40 euros per megawatt hour.