Dutch wholesale gas prices mostly edged higher on Thursday morning as continued concern over possible disruption to Russian supply via Ukraine provided support despite reduced demand from power plants owing to strong wind power output.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 was up 0.10 euros at 38.65 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $12.39/mmbtu, by 0830 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The Dutch day contract TRNLTTFD1 > was up 0.47 euros at 37.95 euros/MWh.

The British September contract TRGBNBPMc1 gained 0.25 pence to 95.09 p/therm.

Prices were extending gains after fighting near a transit point for Russian gas sparked concern over possible disruption to supplies to Europe via Ukraine.

“(This), combined with ongoing underlying concerns of clashes in the Middle East, rumble further nervousness in an already nervous market,” consultancy Auxilione said in a daily market report.

Ukraine’s gas transmission operator said on Thursday that flows remain stable.

Russia’s Gazprom GAZP.MM said it would send 37.3 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Thursday, down slightly from 39.4 mcm on Wednesday.

LSEG analysts said that higher wind power output would lead to weaker non-local distribution zone demand (which includes power demand) in northwest Europe, which was forecast to fall by 122 gigawatt hours/day (GWh/d) to 1,702 GWh/day for Friday.

In the European carbon market CFI2Zc1, the benchmark contract edged down by 0.37 euros to 70.20 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Susanna Twidale, Editing by David Goodman)