British and Dutch prompt wholesale gas prices mostly edged lower on Tuesday morning as continued milder weather curbed gas demand for heating and as liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply rose.

The Dutch front-month contract TRNLTTFMc1 was down 2.00 euros at 73.00 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 1002 GMT, according to Refinitiv Eikon data, levels not seen since Sept. 2021.

The British within-day TRGBNBPWKD contract fell by 5.89 pence to 170.11 p/therm, while the day-ahead contract TRGBNBPD1 slipped by 6.50 p to 168.50 p/therm.

“Tomorrow and the rest of the week, including the weekend… temperatures will be above normal,” Refinitiv Meteorologist George Muller said in a daily weather forecast for central Europe and the UK.

“Next week will be cooler with near normal temperatures with lower precipitation amounts and wind speeds,” Muller said.

British local distribution zone gas demand, which is primarily used for heating, was forecast at 177 million cubic metres (mcm) for Tuesday, down 17 mcm on the previous forecast, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

Supply from Britain’s LNG terminals was expected at 55 mcm on Tuesday, up 6 mcm from the previous day the data showed.

Milder temperatures for the time of year across much of Europe have meant gas stock levels have remained stable, rather than being drawn down as would be expected in winter.

Overall Europe’s gas stores were 83% full on Jan. 8 according to the latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe, little changed from the end of last year.

“Historically weak withdrawals over winter-to-date have offered both a large buffer against cold weather risk in Q1 and significantly reduced the volume of gas that will need to be injected into storage over summer 2023,” said analysts at Timera Energy.

Eastbound gas flows on the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Poland from Germany and flows of Russian gas via Ukraine remained stable on Tuesday morning, pipeline operator data showed.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Susanna Twidale; editing by Nina Chestney)