Wholesale gas prices in Europe and Britain fell on Monday morning after hitting a one-month high in the previous session, with traders taking some profit and as forecasts of less cold and windy weather eased gas demand.

The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub (TRNLTTFMc1) was down 1.23 euro at 27.60 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $9.45/mmBtu, by 0916 GMT, LSEG data showed.

On Friday, the contract closed at its highest level since November 27.

The Dutch day-ahead contract (TRNLTTFD1) was down 1.22 euros at 28.20 euros/MWh.

The British day-ahead gas price (TRGBNBPD1) was down 0.65 pence at 77.75 pence per therm.
Dutch prices were falling mostly on profit-taking, analysts at Engie EnergyScan said.

The weather will also turn milder and windier from the weekend onwards and likely remain so until the end of the next week at least, LSEG meteorologist Georg Mueller said.

Local distribution zone (LDZ) demand in north-west Europe, which largely reflects the need for heating, is set to fall from 5,826 gigawatt hours (GWh) per day on Tuesday to 4,695 GWh/day for working days next week, LSEG data showed.

Non-LDZ demand, which reflects demand from the power sector, is set to ease from 3,853 GWh/day to 3,191 GWh/day.

Meanwhile, EU gas storage sites were last 60.55% full, compared with 70.75% at the same time last year, Gas Infrastructure Europe data showed.

Gas storage refilling over the summer could rise by 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) year-on-year and higher still if there is more cold weather in the first quarter, Greg Molnar, gas analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a post on LinkedIn.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract (CFI2Zc1) was down 0.45 euro at 87.86 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters