Dutch and British wholesale prices rose on Friday morning, reaching their highest in more than a week on expected colder and less windy weather in Europe next week.
The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub gained 0.85 euros to 42.45 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $13.41/mmbtu, by 0949 GMT, LSEG data showed.
It marks the contract’s highest level since Oct. 29.
Further in, the TTF day-ahead contract rose by 1.35 euros to 42.40 euros/MWh.
The British day-ahead contract was up 3.35 pence at 107 pence per therm.
The gas market is showing short-term price gains mainly due to updated weather forecasts, said SEB Markets analyst Ole Hvalbye.
Temperatures for the next 10 days are expected to be at seasonal norms with somewhat colder weather further out while lower than normal wind power generation should increase demand for gas in the power sector, he added.
Cold air will move in from the east later next week, bringing below normal temperatures and partially frosty nights, LSEG meteorologist Georg Mueller wrote.
Increased gas demand will trigger more withdrawals from storage sites, analysts at Northern Gas and Power said.
European gas storage sites were last at 94.43% of capacity, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) showed.
The market is also still digesting Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election and awaiting his view on Ukraine and U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects, which could raise longer-term supply forecasts, analysts at RBC Capital Markets said in a report.
Supply of gas from Russia to Europe via Ukraine remained stable, with Russian producer Gazprom GAZP.MM saying it would send 42.4 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Friday, the same as on Thursday.
In the European carbon market CFI2Zc1, the benchmark contract rose by 0.56 euros to 66.60 euros a ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo, Editing by David Goodman)