Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were little changed early on Thursday as lower LNG supply due to a strike in France was offset by weaker demand from power plants amid strong wind power output.

The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub (TRNLTTFMc1) was up 0.03 euro at 31.45 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $10.83/mmBtu, by 0812 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The Dutch day-ahead contract (TRNLTTFD1) was down 0.55 euro at 31.40 euros/MWh.

The British November gas price (TRGBNBPMc2) was up 0.18 pence at 80.73 pence per therm.

A trade union strike in France has disrupted supply from France’s Dunkirk LNG terminal.

Delivery capacity at Dunkirk will be reduced to 44 gigawatt hours on October 1 from a maximum 520 GWh per day, and 48 GWh on October 2, operator Fluxys said.

But the lower supply was partly offset by weaker demand for gas from power plants.

“Wind power generation is now rising quickly (in Northwest Europe), and the weekend promises rough conditions,” LSEG analyst Ulrich Weber said in a daily research note.

Non-local distribution zone gas demand in Northwest Europe, which includes demand from power plants, was forecast down 519 gigawatt hours at 1,914 GWh for the day-ahead, LSEG data showed.

“Demand is quite low … and there are no other major events right now able to cause drama on a market, where storages are getting filled before the heating season sets in,” analysts at Mind Energy said in a daily market note.

Europe’s gas storage sites are 84.8% full, latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract (CFI2Zc1) was up 0.28 euro at 76.61 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters