British and Dutch wholesale gas prices fell on Friday morning as Norwegian exports rose after an early end to an outage, increased liquefied natural gas send-out and after an EU deal on storage filling.

The Dutch weekend contract was 0.95 euro lower at 87.05 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0834 GMT, while the June contract dipped by 0.35 euro to 89.50 euros/MWh.

In the British market, the weekend contract fell by 18.00 pence to 85.00 pence per therm, while the Winter 2022 price was down by 6.09 pence at 232.00 p/therm.

Flows through the Langeled pipeline have recovered to 62 million cubic metres (mcm) per day after an early end to maintenance at the Troll gas field.

Total north-west Europe LNG send-out is higher and Russian gas flows are stable.
Analysts said that signs that gas buyers are paying for Russian gas via a new payment mechanism had also helped to calm the market.

Half of Russian gas giant Gazprom’s 54 clients have opened accounts at Gazprombank, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday, as European companies approach imminent payment deadlines.

Negotiators from European Union countries and lawmakers on Thursday also clinched a deal on a law to fill Europe’s gas storage ahead of winter, as they attempt to build a supply buffer and prepare for possible disruptions to Russian flows.

The deal would require EU countries to jointly fill gas storage at least 85% by November this year and in 2023, and to 90% in 2024 and 2025. EU gas storage is currently 41% full.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 traded down 1.36 euros at 81.82 euros a tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nina Chestney)