Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were lower on Thursday morning on profit taking, milder weather expectations and healthy supply.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 was down 0.48 euro at 44.25 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) at 0910 GMT, while the February contract was 0.41 euro lower at 44.35 euros/MWh.

In the British market, the month-ahead contract was down 0.78 pence at 109.57 pence per therm.

Dutch TTF prompt prices are expected to continue to trade in the recent range of around 44-47 euros/MWh as temperatures in north-west Europe are expected to be above the 10-year norm from Dec. 15-23, said Wayne Bryan, head of European gas research at LSEG.

Wind output is currently low and below the seasonal average, reducing demand for gas from power plants.

Pipeline and liquefied natural gas supply remains healthy, despite some small outages at Norwegian gas facilities.

Russian gas exports through Ukraine to Europe were stable on Thursday, data showed, a day after Austria’s OMV said it had terminated its long-term gas supply contract with Gazprom.

“Weather forecasts are showing milder weather for large parts of Europe next week. This should help ease some concerns in the market. Participants have been worried about the pace that storge has been drawn so far during the heating season,” said analysts at ING.

European gas storage is currently around 81% full, down from 91% at the same stage last year and also below the 5-year average of 83%, they said.

The latest ICE commitment of traders report showed that investment funds reduced their net long position in TTF by 26 terawatt hour (TWh) to 268 TWh over the past reporting week, ING added.

In the European carbon market CFI2Zc1, the benchmark contract inched down by 0.43 euro to 68.20 euros per metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nina Chestney)