Dutch and British gas prices traded in a narrow range on Monday morning, after rising in the previous two sessions as cooler weather supported higher gas demand and a sharp drop in wind speeds boosted gas demand for power generation, but stable supply curbed the gains.

The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub (TRNLTTFMc1) was slightly down 0.04 euro at 27.46 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $9.45/mmBtu, by 0958 GMT, data compiled by LSEG showed.

The Dutch day-ahead contract (TRNLTTFD1) was almost flat at 27.50 euros/MWh.

The British day-ahead contract (TRGBNBPD1) was up by 0.73 pence at 71.43 pence per therm, while the front-month contract (TRGBNBPMc1) was down 1.01 pence at 72.30 p/therm.

Temperatures are seen cooler this week. Local distribution zone (LDZ) demand, which largely reflects heating demand, is set to rise by 23 gigawatt hours per day to 3618 GWh/d on the day ahead.

“The bullishness from demand increases should be slightly mitigated by the supply side with a continuation of strong supply from Norway and LNG,” said LSEG gas research principal, Wayne Bryan.

Gas demand for power generation is up as wind-speed forecast has dropped across Northwest Europe.

“The price rebound of the last few days seems to be mainly driven by technical buying, prices still have some potential for a slight technical upside, but given the current comfortable European gas fundamentals, in particular strong LNG flows, a significant price increase seems unlikely for now,” analysts at Engie’s Energy Scan said in a morning note.

EU gas storage sites were last 69.61% full, compared with 78.76% at the same time last year, Gas Infrastructure Europe data showed.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract (CFI2Zc1) was up 0.83 euro at 84.62 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters