British and European gas prices mostly fell on Wednesday in a highly volatile market, as an influx of U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes and receding fears over a prolonged cold spell continued to offset the impact of lower Russian supplies.

The British contract for day-ahead delivery was down9.75 pence at 1.80 pounds per therm by 1500 GMT, after trading as high as 2 pounds earlier in the day.

The Dutch wholesale day-ahead contract was down 12.60 euros at 75.50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), its lowest point this year.

“In general, there is no cold weather, enough LNG and the low storage story is becoming boring,” a trader said.

“January will likely see no major colder-than-normal spells but some brief cold episodes are possible,” Refinitiv analyst Georg Mueller said in a forecast.

The British February contract was one of the few contacts bucking the downward trend, rising 10.80 pence to 2.01 pounds/therm.

The Dutch equivalent fell 2.58 euros to 78 euros/MWh, after trading up earlier in the session.

“In Europe, an inundation of more than 10 million tonnes of LNG across December and month-to-date in January has helped calm TTF prices down,” Emily McClain, senior gas markets analyst at Rystad Energy, said in a note.

At the same time, the pace of withdrawals from storage has slowed considerably and is now at only 2.8% on a week-on-week basis, she added.

However, storage levels remained low, which offered support, as did a steep drop in flows from Russia, the analyst said.

Flows of Russian gas on the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe pipeline remain in reverse going eastward and supplies on another pipeline route via Ukraine also are consistently low.

In other markets, the European benchmark December 2022 emission allowance (EUA) contract CFI2Zc1 rose 0.08 euros to 81.38 euros a tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo, Editing by Susanna Twidale and Paul Simao)