Wholesale British and Dutch gas prices fell on Friday morning, relinquishing gains made on Thursday after news of extended outages at Norwegian gas infrastructure.

The Dutch benchmark front-month contract was 6.60 euros down at 35.50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0844 GMT, having hit 49.50 euros/MWh during trading the previous day, its highest level since April.

The Dutch day-ahead contract was down 3.70 euros at 37.10 euros/MWh.

“Our fundamental view on the market remains bearish with healthy storages providing pressure,” analysts at Refinitiv said in a daily research note.

Gas prices were falling after spiking on Thursday following another extension to ongoing maintenance in Norway at the Troll and Oseberg fields, which followed an extension earlier this week to an outage at the Nyhamna gas processing plant.

“They way (prices) ramped after the Troll headline and now the pull back indicates there was an element of over-reaction,” a gas trader said.

European gas storage is currently almost 73% full, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe.

“Storage levels continue to keep a lid on prices as Europe looks on track to reach its 90% target before Dec. 1 2023,” said Rystad senior analyst Lu Ming Pang.

In Britain, the day-ahead contact was down 17.50 pence at 87.00 pence per therm.

Britain’s gas system was almost balanced, with supply forecast at 117.7 million cubic meters (mcm) and demand forecast at 119.3 mcm, National Gas company data showed.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract fell by 1.58 euros to 91.68 euros a tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Susanna Twidale; editing by Nina Chestney)