Ukraine crisis pushes out speculative short gas traders

[LONDON] The crisis in Ukraine has ended one of the biggest short positions in recent European natural gas trading as the threat of a Russian supply cut forced speculative dealers to close positions they had profitably held throughout winter.

In gas markets, the natural sellers ahead of the winter, when demand reaches a peak, are gas producers such as Russia's Gazprom and Norway's Statoil.

They typically sell to utilities that have to restock their inventories in order to be prepared for shortages in case of extreme cold or unforeseen supply disruptions.