Dutch and British wholesale gas prices mostly edged lower on Monday morning as strong inventories and solid flow of liquefied natural gas (LNG) eased supply concerns amid geopolitical tensions and a ramp up in maintenance in Norway.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub was down 0.32 euro at 39.10 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $12.67/mmBtu by 0906 GMT, according to LSEG data.

In the British market, the front-month contract was down by 1.48 pence at 94.50 pence per therm, and the day-ahead contract was down 0.65 pence at 94.00 pence per therm.

“This month sees plenty of Norwegian planned maintenance and we are down by around one-third to normal delivery levels as a result,” consultancy Auxilione said in a daily note.

Norway’s Kaarstoe gas processing plant, that has a daily capacity of 97.6 million cubic metres (mcm), will remain offline until Sep. 20.

In addition, two other processing plants, Kollsnes and Nyhamna will also see curbs this week.

However, a set of cargo arrivals during the weekend and a solid schedule for the week, have bolstered LNG storage levels and allow terminals to fill some of the Norwegian gap, LSEG analyst Ulrich Weber said.

European gas storage levels have reached 92.40% of capacity, having hit a Nov. 1 target two months early, Gas Infrastructure Europe data showed.

The market is still monitoring Ukraine-Russia conflict , where fighting has intensified between both parties and is also closely monitoring the war in Gaza and whether a deal to bring Israeli hostages in Gaza home could be agreed upon soon.

Gas continues to flow into Ukraine via the border point of Sudzha and Russia’s Gazprom GAZP.MM said it would send 42 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Monday, the same volume as on Sunday.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 inched up 0.03 euro to 70.33 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Marwa Rashad, editing by Susanna Twidale)