Dutch and British wholesale gas prices inched up on Friday morning amid forecasts for lower wind output but with supply and storage levels seen healthy.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub edged up by 0.29 euro to 31.40 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $10.01/mmBtu, by 0943 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The Dutch TTF hub day-ahead contract TRNLTTFD1 ticked up 0.24 euro to 31.06 euros/MWh.

The UK front-month contract TRGBNBPMQ4 was down 0.05 pence at 72.20 pence per therm.

On the bullish side, there is increased demand forecast from the power sector due to lower renewable forecasts, LSEG data showed.

Wind supply in Britain is expected to drop below half of Friday levels on Monday, down 3.6 gigawatts (GW) at 3.5 GW.

Lower wind output typically increases demand for gas from power plants.

However, the market has shaken off the risk of the first major U.S. hurricane of the season and net European storage grows more healthily by the day, analysts at Northern Gas and Power said.

Freeport LNG, the U.S. third largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer, began pulling in small volumes of natural gas for processing on Thursday. The company has not provided an operational update since Sunday, when it said it ramped down production.

Data showed European gas storage levels had surpassed 80% full on Friday, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) showed.

Strong Norwegian production and elevated imports from the UK keep storage filling on course to be at required levels ahead of winter, LSEG analyst Wayne Bryan said.

In Germany, the Wilhelmshaven LNG terminal is under full shutdown until 14 July. GIE data shows no flows since July 7.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 was 0.46 euro higher at 68.83 euros per metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Forrest Crellin; Editing by Nina Chestney)