Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were slightly lower on Thursday morning, trading in a narrow range following a sharp decline in the previous session as weather outlook for the end of the week has been revised warmer and windier.

A price rise is still possible as a cold spell expected next week could raise gas demand for heating.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 was down 0.13 euro at 46.93 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $14.85/mmbtu, by 1001 GMT.

In Britain, the day-ahead contract TRGBNBPMc1 fell by 0.25 pence to 116.00 p/therm.

Thursday’s outlook on the day ahead is moderately bearish based on lower demand forecast on the day ahead by a combined 616 gigawatt hour per day (GWh/d) from the previous run, LSEG analyst Yuriy Onyshkiv said in a morning note.

“However, considering yesterday’s strong 3.4% price drop, today’s bearish action is likely to be limited. Some support may come from the fact that we are heading into another cold spell next week with temperatures dropping below normal before recovering in mid-December,” Onyshkiv said.

Analysts at Engie’s Energy scan said that while spot prices could remain under bearish pressure on warmer and windier weather, the near curve contracts could be more resilient as next week’s weather outlook is now expected a bit colder than yesterday with a jump in gas demand for heating in sight.

Underlying fundamentals remain unchanged from recent days with flows remaining steady, including those of LNG cargoes expected to land in the weeks ahead, consultancy Auxilione said.

Wind power remains high in Britain with peak wind power forecast around 18.5 gigawatts (GW) for both Thursday and Friday.

In the European carbon market CFI2Zc1, the benchmark contract was down 0.13 euro at 67.73 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Marwa Rashad; editing by David Evans)