The Belgian government released its hydrogen strategy in October and Equinor said the H2BE project would help Belgium deliver on the strategy.

Brent fell 91 cents, or 1.2%, to $72.79 a barrel, WTI fell $1.05, or 1.5%, to $69.68 a barrel.

Globally, renewable electricity capacity is forecast to increase by over 60% between 2020 and 2026, reaching more than 4 800 GW.

Specifically, the daily amount of gas exports was significantly increased in November and December under the mutually beneficial arrangements between Gazprom and CNPC as compared with the schedule for 2021 that had been approved earlier.

It is unusual for European LNG prices to surpass spot LNG prices in Asia, which relies on LNG imports much more than Europe, and especially in peak winter when demand from Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan is at its highest, supporting the typical Asian premium.

The Dec. 12 LNG stocks were well above 1.42 million mt held at the end of December last year, as well as the four-year average of 1.71 million mt at the end of that month, according to METI data.

Derivatives linked to TTF, Europe’s wholesale gas price, soared as high as €131 per megawatt hour

Front-month gas futures fell 4.7 cents, or 1.2%, to settle at $3.747 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), their lowest close since Dec. 7.

Brent dropped 24 cents, or 0.32%, to $74.15 a barrel, WTI declined by 27 cents, or 0.38%, to $71.02.

World oil demand is kept unchanged compared to last month’s assessment, showing a growth of 5.7 mb/d in 2021.