Dutch and British gas prices rose on Monday morning, driven by news of an Egyptian gas import stoppage that should impact the country’s exports of liquefied natural gas, while colder weather and unplanned outages in Norway added support.
The Benchmark Dutch November gas contract rose by 2.50 euros to 53.40 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0945 GMT. The December contract gained 2.45 euros to 56.15 euros/MWh.
In Britain, the November contract was up by 6.50 pence at 133.00 pence per therm.
“I think it’s the news coming out of Egypt,” a trader said.
Egypt’s natural gas imports fell to zero from 800 million cubic feet (mcf) per day, the country said at the weekend.
Earlier this month, Chevron shut down the Tamar gas field amid the Israel-Hamas conflict and suspended exports through a subsea pipeline to Egypt.
Egypt has previously exported spare volumes as liquefied natural gas (LNG), but these have stopped amid a drop in supplies and high domestic consumption.
Although Egyptian LNG volumes to Europe are typically not high the move highlights the ramping of the geopolitical risk, the trader said.
Near-term gas prices were also buoyed by colder weather forecasts and unplanned outages at Norwegian processing plants.
Flows of Norwegian gas to Continental Europe were down 10 million cubic metres (mcm) per day, LSEG analyst Saku Jussila said in a morning report.
The Dutch day-ahead contract gained 3.55 euros to 50.80 euros/MWh, while the weekend contract was up 3.45 euros at 50.25 euros/MWh.
The British day-ahead contract rose 9.00 pence to 126.00 pence per therm, and the within-day contract was up 10.00 pence at 129.00 p/therm, LSEG data showed.
Temperatures are set to see a big drop from next Monday and stay below the seasonal normal all that week, Jussila said.
Local distribution zone (LDZ) consumption, which mostly reflects heating demand, is forecast to increase strongly by 994 gigawatt hours (GWh) per day for next week, he added.
In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 rose 1.07 euros to 80.42 euros a tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nora Buli; Editing by Susanna Twidale)