European natural gas traded volumes fell 23% from November in the final month of 2015 to 3,112 TWh as both over-the-counter and exchange traded volume decreased month on month, data compiled by Platts showed Wednesday.
Nonetheless, traded volume in December were still 16% higher in comparison with the December 2014 total, led mainly by increases in trade on the Dutch TTF hub.
Total traded volume in December on the TTF more than doubled on the year to 1,424 TWh, but was down almost 400 TWh from November levels.
On the UK's hub, traded volume dropped 31.1% month on month to 1,198 TWh and were in fact lower than December 2014 levels of 1,233 TWh.
Monthly traded volume losses were steeper on exchanges in comparison to OTC, falling 35% and 15% respectively to 994 TWh and 2,118 TWh, however, yearly gains on exchanges were 33% against OTC's annual increase of 11%.
Trade on the German GASPOOL hub bucked the trend of the other European gas hubs, as trade on both OTC and exchange rose solidly on the month in December to 107 TWh.
However, GASPOOL traded volume still lags behind NetConnect Germany as the NCG saw 167 TWh traded during the final month of 2015, split between OTC and exchanges at 147 TWh and 20 TWh respectively.
Despite December historically bringing lower trade month on month, trade on the PEGAS platform rose to hit a record high in December, rising to 143 TWh last month, up 11% from November and 182% higher than December 2014 levels -- trade was boosted by TTF and GASPOOL liquidity hikes.
Churn rates, unsurprisingly, fell on the month, with churn falling from 35 November to 27 December on the TTF and dropping from 20 to 14 on the NBP -- physical throughput was largely unchanged month on month on the NBP and TTF hubs.
Trade in January can be expected to increase steeply from December levels with volatile prices seen so far in 2016 due to the cold snap arriving mid- month allied to further falls in oil prices affecting longer-term pricing on European gas hubs.
January 2015 trade rose by more than 50% from December 2014 levels, with January 2014 traded volumes almost double those recorded the previous month.
