Dutch and British wholesale gas prices remained near 15-month highs on Friday morning as colder weather stoked demand and lower storage levels buoyed the market.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub (TRNLTTFMc1) was up 0.60 euro at 54.80 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $16.69/mmBtu, by 0916 GMT, according to LSEG data.

The contract hit an intra-day high of 55.45 euros/MWh on Thursday, its highest level since October 2023.

The Dutch April contract (TRNLTTFMc2) was up 0.21 euro at 54.31 euros/MWh.

In Britain, the front-month contract (NGLNMH5) was up 0.45 pence at 133.64 p/therm on ICE.

“Whilst little is changed in terms of fundamentals, it seems clear there are concerns around a colder February with quickly depleting gas stocks, which are already at lower levels than in recent years,” analysts at Auxilione said in a daily research note.

Europe’s gas stores are currently 50.63% full, data from gas Infrastructure Europe showed.

Analysts at Energy Aspects said prices may need to rise even further to encourage the supply needed to refill Europe’s gas stores and forecast inventories will fall to around 35 billion cubic metres (bcm) by the end of March, meaning they would be around 32% full and around 28.6 bcm lower than the same time last year.

“We think the TTF will need to price higher at around 57 euros/MWh…as quickly depleting inventories continue to increase summer injection requirements,” they said.

In the European carbon market (CFI2Zc1), the benchmark contract was up 0.38 euro at 82.27 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters