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Colder winter could significantly impact gas prices, CFO

warns

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Equinor ( EQNR ) lowers 2030 gas price outlook to $8/MMBTU

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US power demand rise may limit LNG exports

(Updates with quotes, background from paragraph 2 onwards.)

By Nora Buli

OSLO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - The outlook for Europe's

natural gas market this winter is tighter than many had expected

as the continent's storage levels are 12 percentage points lower

than a year ago, Equinor's ( EQNR ) finance chief told Reuters

on Wednesday.

The Norwegian company in 2022 overtook Russia's Gazprom

as Europe's biggest supplier of natural gas when

Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine upended decades-long

energy ties.

"We're entering this winter in a market that is tighter than

many people think," Torgrim Reitan said in an interview on the

sidelines of the company's earnings presentation.

Europe is entering the winter season, when demand is

highest, with gas storage 83% full, 12 percentage points lower

than last year, he said.

"So if you see a colder winter than last year, this can

actually be quite a movement in the prices," Reitan said.

Europe's ban on Russian liquefied natural gas by 2027 will

remove 17 billion cubic metres of supply, tightening the market,

with Equinor ( EQNR ) also expecting an annual 3% rise in Asian LNG

demand, he added.

LOWER GAS PRICE OUTLOOK ON MORE LNG SUPPLY

Further ahead, the next years will see a lot of new LNG

supply coming to the market and Equinor ( EQNR ) has lowered its

long-term gas price outlook, to $8/MMBTU in 2030 from around

$9/MMBTU now, Reitan said.

Earlier this week, the International Energy Agency said a

record wave of new LNG capacity coming online before 2030 was

set to transform gas market dynamics by strengthening global

supply security and easing market pressure.

However, U.S. domestic power consumption is set to rise on

demand from data centres and AI, which will also impact gas

demand for power and utility bills there, Reitan said.

"So that might put restrictions on LNG exports," he added.

Earlier, Equinor ( EQNR ) posted a bigger-than-expected drop in

third-quarter profit as oil and gas prices fell, and booked

asset impairments on a weaker long-term outlook for crude oil

prices.