Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were largely flat on Friday morning, after rising on Thursday afternoon, as lower demand and stable supply were expected.
The benchmark front-month contract TRNLTTFMc1 at the Dutch TTF hub inched up by 0.02 euro to 39.82 euros per megawatt hour(MWh) by 0846 GMT, while the December price was flat at 40.25 euros/MWh, LSEG data showed.
The British November contract TRGBNBPMc1 edged up by 0.17 pence at 100.40 pence per therm.
“There could be some profit taking after yesterday’s rise and fundamental signals are bearish but eyes are still on the what is going on in the Middle East,” a gas trader said.
Gas prices ended higher yesterday on concerns about the Middle East conflict widening. Oil prices rose on the possibility that Israel might target Iranian oil infrastructure, which could provoke retaliation.
Asked on Thursday if he would support Israel striking Iran’s oil facilities, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters “we’re discussing that.” He added: “There is nothing going to happen today.”
Concerns remain in the gas market over geopolitical risks in the Middle East and Ukraine. However, demand is expected to fall from tomorrow as temperatures rise over the weekend.
Norwegian gas flows to Europe are 15 million cubic metres (mcm) higher at 242 mcm/day. The Troll gas field is also scheduled to come back online at the weekend following an outage.
In the European carbon market, the benchmark EU carbon permit contract CFI2Zc1 was 0.97 euro lower at 61.79 euros per metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nina Chestney)