Abstract:
This Paper analyses the results of the trading data in 2024 for the European traded gas hubs, to give a fuller picture of the recovery after the very turbulent period from 2020 to 2022, where the various hubs now stand and, more importantly, to establish whether the Dutch TTF can now credibly be called a global gas benchmark. The paper shows that the Dutch TTF is truly the leading pricing benchmark for North-West Europe and indeed for many other European countries; it is also increasingly being used to price spot LNG cargoes. It has become an investment asset class in its own right and, as the data and analysis presented in this paper show, TTF is now a global benchmark too. Not only have the TTF total traded volumes grown to such an extent that they represent 82.9% of total European traded gas volumes, but its churn rate calculated against the much greater physical consumption figure of the countries including and surrounding the Netherlands, and whose shippers are known to be using TTF for their risk management, has risen considerably for the second year running and is now 45.9 times, easily becoming for the first time a 'very liquid' benchmark hub.