During routine maintenance, Electricite de France (OTCPK:ECIFF) ("EDF") found pipe defects on the safety injection systems for two nuclear facilities; both are shut down awaiting repair.
Two additional reactors, using the same technology, will be shut down briefly later this month for inspection.
As a result of the outages, EDF has revised 2021 annual EBITDA guidance from "more than 17.7b euros" to "17.5b - 18.0b euros."
Although 2021 guidance was effectively unchanged, shares fell as much as 13% in European trading, as investors weight the impact of lingering outages on 2022 performance.
With yet another source of energy offline, European natural gas for January delivery continues its relentless march higher; prices now reaching $44 / mmbtu, Europeans will pay 900% more for natural gas in January 2022 than January 2021.
In the US, where natural gas prices have risen almost 50% year over year, consumers are paying less than $4 / mmbtu
This price dynamic creates an opportunity for liquified natural gas producers with assets in the US like Cheniere (NYSE:LNG), Total (NYSE:TTE) and Shell (NYSE:RDS.A), who can source gas in the US at $4, transport it to Europe, and sell it for $44.
French month ahead electricity prices for January have risen to ~$620 / mwh on the back of the EDF news, compared to average power prices in the US at ~$100 / mwh.
With Europe in the midst of an energy crisis, all eyes turn to Russian gas (OTCPK:OGZPY), as consumers look for a reprieve while the Continent begins its energy transition.