European and British gas contracts were largely steady on Friday amid milder weather ahead, steady supplies from Norway and liquefied natural gas (LNG) and ongoing uncertainty over future Russian gas supply in case of a Ukraine peace deal.
The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub (TRNLTTFMc1) was down 0.09 euro at 47.51 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $14.59/mmBtu, by 0904 GMT, LSEG data showed.
The April TTF contract (TRNLTTFMc2) was up 0.13 euro at 47.85 euros/MWh.
Further in, the British day-ahead contract (TRGBNBPD1) was up 0.25 pence at 112.75 pence per therm.
The market had opened with a modest rebound but the sentiment could change again quickly, analysts at Energi Danmark said in a morning report.
Temperatures in Europe are to turn milder following a recent cold snap, while the market awaits further news about a potential peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, they added.
“We think there will be a Russia–Ukraine peace deal this year, but we remain sceptical this will translate into the return of Russian gas to the market,” analysts at Energy Aspects said in a weekly report.
Ukraine was likely to remain politically opposed to Russia earning money from hydrocarbon exports without very strong security guarantees, while NATO membership appeared unlikely in U.S.-led negotiations, they added.
Meanwhile, the European Union’s energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen said that the EU will seek more gas from countries including the U.S. to replace Russian supplies, and expand renewable energy faster to cut its overall reliance on the fuel.
The Commission was also working on stricter controls of the gas market to avoid speculative trading causing price spikes, and would propose “financial instruments” next week designed to decouple retail power prices from high gas prices, he added.
Robust Norwegian and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply is likely to stabilize the market in the near-term, LSEG analyst Yuriy Onyshkiv said.
In the European carbon market (CFI2Zc1), the benchmark contract was up 1.56 euro at 74.23 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters