Dutch and British wholesale gas prices edged higher on Monday morning on forecasts for cooler temperatures and continued outages in Norway.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 was up by 0.25 euros at 36.60 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $11.86 /mmBtu, by 0810 GMT, LSEG data showed.

In the British market the day-ahead contract TRGBNBPD1 gained 0.25 pence to 87.75 pence per therm.

“The expected strong drop in temperatures this week could (temporarily) support demand,” analysts at Engie EnergyScan said in a daily research note.

LSEG meteorologist Georg Muller said low pressure would affect Britain and north-west Europe over the next few days.

“It will steer cool and moist air into our area. This will bring a cooler than normal and (a) generally unsettled next seven to ten days,” he said.

Analysts at LSEG said average temperatures in Britain were expected to drop to 9.2 degrees Celsius on Friday, 6.5C lower than temperatures on Sunday.

Wind speeds are also expected to be volatile over the next few days, leading to fluctuations in wind power generation and gas demand from power plants.

Peak wind power generation in Britain is expected at 11.1 gigawatts (GW) on Monday, rising to 17.6 GW on Tuesday, Elexon data showed.

On the supply side, maintenance at Norwegian infrastructure continues to curb supply.

Total Norwegian exports were nominated at 185 million cubic metres (mcm), down 6 mcm compared to Friday, LSEG data showed.

The supply of gas from Russia to Europe via Ukraine remained stable.

Russian gas producer Gazprom said it would ship 41.9 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Monday, the same volume as on Sunday.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 eased by 0.27 euro to 66.23 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Susanna Twidale; editing by Nina Chestney)