Dutch and British gas prices edged lower on Wednesday morning, losing gains made on Tuesday afternoon following an extension to an outage at a major Norwegian gas field, as high gas stores weighed on the market.

The Dutch October contract was down 1.37 euros to 36.00 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) at 0826 GMT, while the November contract was 1.00 euro lower at 43.50 euros/MWh, according to LSEG data.

The British day-ahead contract was down 2 pence to 92.00 p/therm.

Prices began rising on Tuesday afternoon after Norwegian gas system operator Gassco revised the details of a planned outage at the Troll gas field, raising the capacity impact to 125 million cubic meters (mcm) from the previous 95 mcm.

“Market nervousness was especially triggered by the announcement of another delay in the Troll reset and the extension of field ramp-up period,” LSEG analyst Tomasz Marcin Kowalski said in a daily research note.

However, traders said high gas stocks in Europe had helped to keep a lid on prices.

Europe’s gas stores are 94.4% full, latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed.

Prices are expected to remain volatile, particularly if there are any fresh updates to the outage schedule.

“Depending on Gassco’s announcements, prices could rise towards the 5-day High (40.10 euros/MWh) or drop towards the S1 (support) level (33.62 euros/MWh),” analysts at Engie EnergyScan said.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 was down 0.29 euro to 80.94 euros a tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Susanna Twidale, Editing by Mark Potter)