Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were little changed on Wednesday morning, as strong demand for gas from power plants was offset by weaker household demand and steady supply.

The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub was down 0.2 euro at 31.75 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $10.84/mmBtu, by 0813 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The Dutch day-ahead contract was down 0.17 euro at 31.25 euros/MWh.

The British day-ahead gas price was down 1.6 pence at 77.25 pence per therm.
“Today, we expect the TTF day-ahead price to remain rangebound, as fundamentals remain largely unchanged,” LSEG analyst Yuriy Onyshkiv said in a daily market report.

Weaker wind speeds are expected to boost demand for gas from gas-fired power plants but this will be offset by lower demand from the heating sector with temperatures expected to rise, Onyshkiv said.

In Northwest Europe non-local distribution zone demand, which includes power plant demand, is expected to rise by 182 gigawatt hours/day (GWh/d) for the day-ahead to 1,751 GWh/d, LSEG data showed.

Supply was steady with total Norwegian export nominations flat at 238 million cubic metres/day, LSEG data showed.

“Stock levels in Europe have grown substantially during summer and, despite Norwegian maintenance work, flows are stable and the market is calm right now,” analysts at Mind Energy said in a daily research note.

Europe’s gas stores are 78.1% full, latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract was down 0.17 euro at 73.44 euros a metric ton.

Source: Reuters