By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – ADRs of European energy majors were trading higher in Monday’s premarket as oil prices strengthen and natural gas prices surge to seasonal highs ahead of the winters.
BP (NYSE:BP), Shell (NYSE:RDSa) and TotalEnergies ADRs (NYSE:TTE) were up 2.5%-3.5% as supply chain issues, a lack of truck drivers, booming demand and the onset of winter all combined to push energy prices to levels not seen for years now.
The STOXX Oil & Gas index climbed 1.8% to hit a three-month high as Brent futures headed for $80 per barrel amid supply concerns. Brent prices for December delivery traded 1.3% higher at $78.25 at 0600 ET. Prices have climbed more than 8% in September so far.
Citigroup (NYSE:C) last week more than doubled its Asian and European natural gas forecasts for next quarter and said prices could surge to as high as $100 per million British thermal units if people were confronted with a harsh winter.
LNG prices are booming as European inventories are unusually low for this time of the year. At the same time, demand from China has soared due to an expanding economy and pollution-related curbs on the country's coal-fired power plants. According to Bloomberg, imports of LNG by the world’s largest importer are almost double last year’s.
The situation in Britain has worsened as up to 90% of fuel stations ran dry Monday, thanks to panic buying that aggravated a localized supply chain crisis, according to a Reuters report.