In this week's Market Movers Europe with Henry Edwardes-Evans:
- EU's Russian oil ban looms large
- EU agencies to publish report on gas price cap
- French nuclear set to rise again
- Belgium's Tihange-2 to shut Jan. 31
In oil, sentiment has been lifted by US economic expectations and China's reopening.
EU officials meanwhile are confident of handling a ban on Russian oil product imports from February 5.
It's a far from universal view given that Europe still imports over a quarter of its diesel from Russia.
Bolstering supply are US diesel shipments to Europe, at record levels, and help is at hand from growing refining capacity in the Middle East and India.
In gas, EU agencies ACER and ESMA are set to publish a preliminary report into the EU's new gas price cap today.
The agencies were tasked with producing a report on the market correction mechanism agreed by EU member states in December.
The new EU price cap would be triggered if the TTF month-ahead price exceeds 180 euros a megawatt hour for three working days and is at the same time 35 euros a megawatt hour higher than a global LNG reference price.
In electricity, markets will be focused on nuclear availability due to colder, calmer weather.
French reactors are set to ramp up to their highest level since last winter with three units returning before the end of January.
But the 2023 maintenance season is about to get underway, and in Belgium, the one gigawatt Tihange-2 reactor is set to close for good by midnight tomorrow.