Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were little changed on Friday morning as maintenance in Norway continued to curb supplies and the need to refill European storage sites remained a factor supporting prices.

The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub (TRNLTTFMc1) inched up by 0.20 euros to 36.50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0840 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The British front-month contract (TRGBNBPMc1) edged up by 0.24 pence to 86.39 pence per therm, with the day-ahead contract (TRGBNBPD1) was up 1.50 pence at 87.50 p/therm.

The latest weather forecast showed an expected temperature rise in north-west Europe next week, LSEG data showed.

Norwegian maintenance outages will remain a driver next week, but barring any extensions, prices should largely trade sideways, said LSEG gas analyst Ulrich Weber.

Total Norwegian export nominations rose by 16 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) to 273 mcm/d amid the return of two small fields from maintenance, LSEG data showed.

Meanwhile, storage re-filling also remains a wider concern, analysts said.

European storage sites were last seen 49.9% full, trailing filling levels at the same time last year by 20 percentage points, Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data showed.

They would be just 84% full by the start of November if injections continue at the average rate seen over the past three years, Greg Molnar, gas analyst at the International Energy Agency said in a post on LinkedIn.

This would be 13 billion cubic metres (bcm) below their three-year average and lower gas stocks could support stronger price volatility over the winter season, he added.

German utility Uniper said this week that “persistently unfavourable market conditions” have prevented capacity sales at its Breitbrunn site in southern Germany, which would not reach a mandated 80% filling level by Nov. 1.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract (CFI2Zc1) edged up 0.28 euro to 73.02 euros a metric ton.

Source: Reuters