Dutch and British wholesale gas prices continued their upwards trend on Wednesday morning, as Norway’s annual maintenance starts this week, while the market remains on edge over the impact on supply of the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 was up 0.24 euros at 39.05 euros ($43.3) per megawatt hour (MWh), or 12.69 $/mmBtu, by 0857 GMT, according to LSEG data.

In the British market, the day-ahead contract TRGBNBPD1 was up 2.50 pence at 92.50 pence per therm.

“The upward movement reflects the fear premium and market sentiment around supply-side disruption due to ongoing geopolitical tensions … counter to the relaxed demand outlook,” said LSEG analyst Timothy Crump.

A significant part of Norway’s annual maintenance period begins this week with multiple ongoing outages.

Norwegian nominations have dropped by 10 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) on the day ahead, with Franpipe, Emden and Dornum all edging down as planned maintenance starts to ramp up at both fields and processing plants, LSEG data showed.

Russia said the West was playing with fire by considering allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with Western missiles, and cautioned the United States on Tuesday that World War Three would not be confined to Europe.

Russian gas still flows to Europe and gas producer Gazprom GAZP.MM said it would send 42.4 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Wednesday, unchanged from Tuesday.

European gas storage levels have reached 91.83% of capacity, having hit a Nov. 1 target two months early, Gas Infrastructure Europe data showed.

In Britain, temperatures are set to continue to drop to a low on the day, before rising again over the weekend.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 rose 0.97 euros to 71.46 euros per metric ton.
Source: Reuters