Reuters scoops biggest gas story of past few months

European gas prices surged on Aug. 26 on a Reuters scoop that Qatargas will shut three of the world’s biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producing plants for maintenance in late 2011. Benchmark British gas contracts registered their biggest one day gains since Japan’s earthquake and Fukushima nuclear crisis shook the global gas market in March, with UK winter season contract prices surging more than six percent and contracts for October leaping nearly 8 percent as news of the shutdowns stoked fears over gas supplies in north-west Europe going into winter. Bloomberg cited the Reuters report in a story published several hours later and after prices had already jumped. After Singapore-based correspondents scooped the competition on the biggest gas story of the last few months, our reporters in London helped explain and chart the impact of the shutdowns on European gas markets. Reuters reporters in the Middle East then beat Bloomberg again by several hours with the official confirmation on Aug. 28 of the planned shutdowns. Qatargas told Reuters it also planned to do maintenance on two other big LNG production lines, which could further reduce LNG supply to the global market.