British and Dutch gas prices edged higher on Thursday morning as concerns over Norwegian supply amid unplanned outages continued to weigh on the market.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub rose by 0.68 euro to 34.05 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0854 GMT, equivalent to $10.85/mmBtu, according to LSEG data.

The August contract added 0.43 euro to 34.15 euros/MWh.

In the British market, the day-ahead contract was up 1.40 pence at 82.00 pence per therm and the July contract rose by 1.91 pence to 81.25 p/therm.

Prices hit a six-month high on Monday on news of an outage affecting Norway’s gas exports to Britain, but have since fallen after operator Gassco said the issue would only take a few days to fix, with gas exports to Britain via the Langeled pipeline gradually resuming on June 7.

“The recent spike witnessed across the gas and power markets does however emphasise just how much the UK relies on Norwegian gas fields to bridge the gap in supply, as any restriction in these flows typically leads to major upwards pressure on the markets,” analysts at UK energy consultancy Northern Gas and Power said in a daily market note.

Total Norwegian piped exports to the UK were down 11 million cubic metres (mcm) at 16 mcm/day, LSEG data showed.

Traders said they were taking a wait-and-see approach and that the market was likely to move if there are further updates on the outage.

“The market is not completely confident either because there is still uncertainty,” analysts at Engie EnergyScan said.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 rose by 0.60 euro to 72.44 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Susanna Twidale; Editing by Varun H K)