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 thei…