Surging European gas prices to lift Asian spot LNG markets -traders

LONDON, Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) 12 (Reuters) - * British January gas prices surged 17 percent to $9.12 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) on Tuesday, rapidly bridging the gap with Asia's spot LNG markets, the world's premium market for gas * Italian day-ahead gas prices surged 110 percent to $17.25 per mmBtu. British spot gas prices jumped 15 percent to $11.05 per mmBtu * By comparison, Asian January spot LNG prices (LNG-AS) were assessed at $10.10 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) * The hike in European gas prices, driven by a major North Sea pipeline system shutdown, Norwegian outages and a Russian pipeline flow stoppage, is expected to lift Asian spot LNG (LNG-AS) markets for January and the first quarter, traders said * An explosion at the Baumgarten gas transfer point in Austria, a key access route for Russian piped gas supplies into Europe, halted flows and triggered fresh prices gains across European gas markets * Asian spot LNG prices already up about 90 percent from 2017 lows * Rivalry with Europe for LNG supply amid Asia's peak winter demand from China, South Korea and Taiwan (Taiwan OTC: 6549.TWO - news) is expected to lift Far East (Kuala Lumpur: 5029.KL - news) prices sharply in order to keep supplies flowing there, LNG traders said. * The shock exacerbated an already tightly global LNG market with a lack of shipping availability constraining flows to Asia (Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic; editing by Jason Neely)