British and Dutch gas prices fell on Monday morning as healthy storage levels and strong supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG) helped to offset colder temperatures and an outage on the UK-Belgium interconnector.

The front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 a European benchmark, was down by 2.70 euros at 42.70 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0941 GMT, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

The contract earlier traded at 42.20 euros/MWh, its lowest level since August 2021 and marking a fresh 18-month low.

The Dutch day-ahead contract TRNLTTFD1 was down 2.72 euros at 44.00 euros/MWh

The British day-ahead contract TRGBNBPD1 fell by 4.00 pence to 114 p/therm, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

“Despite the cold being forecast, healthy supply levels and EU gas stocks have given the market comfort as we head towards the end of the winter season, helping to limit any concerns,” consultancy Auxilione said in its daily market report.

European gas storage sites were 59% full, latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed.

Milder weather is also expected to return quicker than originally forecast, limiting the increased demand.

“A much warmer weather forecast for the second half of this week and early next week is lowering the demand forecast and is likely to send some bearish signals,” Refinitiv analyst Yuriy Onyshkiv said in a daily research note.

Prices also fell despite an unplanned outage forcing offline the gas interconnector between Belgium and Britain, which is now expected to return to service on March 8.

“We don’t expect it to have a major impact on the balance and, hence, the market sentiment,” Onyshkiv said.

The benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 in the European carbon market rose by 1.47 euros to 93.65 euros a tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Susanna Twidale; editing by Nina Chestney)