Energy Commodities: 16/03/10

Unless stated otherwise, all prices are for the close of March 15.

German power: €46.20MWh, down 0.17 per cent

Coal: €90.00/t, down 0.94 per cent

Natural gas: GB 30.96p/therm, up 3.55 per cent

EUAs for December 2010 delivery: €13.09/t, up 1.47 per cent

CERs for December 2010 delivery: €11.44/t, up 1.24 per cent

Brent crude oil futures for April 2010 delivery: US$77.53/bbl, down 0.49 per cent, as of GMT 9:00, March 16

WTI crude oil futures for April 2010 delivery: US$79.59/bbl, down 0.29 per cent, as of GMT 9:00, March 16

Latest buzz

Oil futures remain under pressure this morning after yesterday’s two per cent drop in WTI which caused prices to close below US$80 per barrel. Ahead of Wednesday’s OPEC meeting, Ali Al-Naimi, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister, has said he sees no need to alter OPEC production: “We are extremely happy with the market, the economy is doing well, it will do better down the road, so I don’t see any reason to disturb this happy situation”.

EUAs have recovered somewhat with the December 2010 contracts holding above €13.00. The EU has announced that it is investigating the means by which it can reduce its emissions from 20% to 30% by 2020 with the EU ETS likely to be a key mechanism.

CERs have also recovered lost ground as the ECX has said it plans to alter the rules governing sales of CERs through its exchange to prevent recycled credits from re-entering the EU ETS. This comes after Hungary said last week it agreed to sell almost 2Mt of UN CER credits to an unspecified broker for approximately US$21m.