Wholesale British and Dutch gas prices fell on Monday morning on profit taking following strong gains the previous week and as low demand and healthy storage continued to weigh on prices.

The Dutch benchmark front-month contract was 0.71 euros down at 32.05 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0844 GMT, while the day-ahead contract TRNLTTFD1 was down 1.20 euros at 32.10 euros/MWh.

“The market seems to have remembered that fundamentals have not really changed and that the European gas balance remains comfortable,” analysts an Engie’s EnergyScan said in a morning note.

“(However) Until EU gas stocks are full, European day-ahead and month-ahead gas prices have significant upside potential, which is reflective of competition between uses: current demand, mainly from power generators, versus storage injection demand,” they added.

A European gas trader said prices could start to fall below 30 euros, especially now that maintenance at Norwegian gas facilities are partially starting to end.

Traders said the market has already priced in the maintenance in Norway at the Troll and Oseberg fields, which followed an extension earlier this week to an outage at the Nyhamna gas processing plant.

European gas storage is almost 74% full, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe.

In Britain, the day-ahead contact TRGBNBPD1 was down 3.60 pence at 80.00 pence per therm.

Britain’s gas system was over-supplied by 3.2 million cubic meters balanced (mcm), with supply forecast at 127.8 mcm and demand forecast at 124.6 mcm, National Gas company data showed.

Peak wind power generation in Britain is forecast at 6.8 gigawatts (GW) on Monday and 6.6 GW on Tuesday, out of total metered capacity of 22 GW, Elexon data showed.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 fell by 0.31 euros to 92.04 euros a tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Marwa Rashad; editing by Nina Chestney)