Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were little changed on Friday with comfortable supply and demand.

The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub (TRNLTTFMc1) was down 0.29 euro at 31.95 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) or $10.99/mmBtu, by 0821 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The Dutch September contract (TRNLTTFMc2) was down 0.40 euro at 32.40 euros/MWh.

The British front-month gas price (TRGBNBPMc1) was up 0.35 pence at 78.52 pence per therm.

“Total (Northwest European) demand is expected to remain broadly unchanged, as the forecast increase in Local distribution zone (LDZ) consumption is likely to be offset by a decrease in non-LDZ consumption,” LSEG analyst Dzmitry Dauhalevich said in a daily research note.

Cooler temperature forecasts led to an upward revision in LSEG’s forecast for Northwest Europe LDZ gas demand, which is primarily domestic gas use, with the forecast for demand day-ahead expected to rise by 73 gigawatts a day (GW/d) to 673 GWh/d.

Non-LDZ demand meanwhile, which includes demand from power plants and industrial firms, is forecast to decline by 58 GWh/d to 1,689 GWh/d for the day-ahead, LSEG data showed.

Europe’s gas stores are currently 66% full, latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed.

The EU parliament earlier this month approved a deal to relax rules around how much gas countries need to have in storage for the winter.

“Based on the flexibility granted by the new mandates, Europe could reach its target as soon as September, although some countries are already above their individual targets. But European stocks will still be much lower year on year by the start of the heating season, shifting more risk to winter prices,” analysts at Energy Aspects said in a research note.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract (CFI2Zc1) was down 0.14 euro at 70.74 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters