British and Dutch wholesale gas prices were mixed on Wednesday on solid inventories despite maintenance at a number of facilities in Norway and Denmark on one hand, while lower wind output should result in higher gas for power demand.

The British day-ahead gas price was 1.00 pence higher at 85.50 pence per therm by 0849 GMT, while the contract for immediate delivery rose by 1.00 pence to 86.00 p/therm, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

The Dutch front-month contract was 0.43 euro lower at 36.13 euros per megawatt hour (MWh).

“We have all these maintenances going on, but the good thing is that storage is there and plentiful, so we might see a bit of a push up today but it won’t be much,” a European gas trader said.

Maintenance at Nybro in Denmark is shutting down imports through Baltic Pipe for five days until the morning of May 13, Refinitiv data showed.

Norway’s Troll Field has maintenance with a capacity reduction of 31mcm/d until June 11.

Maintenance at Karsto gas processing plant in Norway was also extended by two days to the morning of May 14. Capacity reduction remains at 20mcm/d. Further maintenance, with an impact of 5mcm/d, is scheduled from May 19 until June 14.

Meanwhile, European gas stocks remained high, with Europe’s gas stores 62.04% full, according to latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

A report by SEB Markets said that European storage is close to an all-time high for the season and for its November target of 90% full.

The report said that while European prices have roughly halved in 2023, they are still close to twice as high as their level in 2018/2019. The current levels below 40 euros could be the new long-term normal, it added.

“Next winter will probably be manageable unless it is severely cold. The sense of urgent crisis is fading, though the EU will still have to curb natural gas demand and import large amounts of LNG from theglobal market” it said.

British gas for power demand for the day ahead is forecast to rise by 13 million cubic metres (mcm) to 63 mcm on lower winds, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

The British gas system was undersupplied by 5.1 million cubic meters (mcm) on Wednesday, National Grid data showed.

Peak wind power generation in Britain is forecast at 4.1 gigawatts (GW) for Wednesday falling to 1.9 GW on Thursday, out of a total metered capacity of 22 GW.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 rose by 1.07 euros to 87.84 euros a tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Marwa Rashad; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)