Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were largely steady on Friday morning amid muted market activity and some profit-taking, with supply and weather forecasts little changed.
The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 was down 0.37 euro at 45.91 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $14.21/mmBtu, by 1004 GMT.
The January contract TRNLTTFMc2 was down 0.42 euros at 46.33 euros/MWh.
In Britain, the day-ahead contract TRGBNBPD1 eased by 0.85 pence to 114.50 pence/therm, with the January contract TRGBNBPMc2 seen down 1.79 p at 116.65 p/therm.
“It’s a bit of a sluggish day,” a trader said, adding the slight move lower was a technical correction within an upward trend.
The market was not really willing to sell off from the current levels, which remain near one-year highs, he said.
Gas prices have eased this week amid milder and windier weather forecasts, following a long period of below-average temperatures, analysts at Energi Danmark said in a note.
“The losses are nowhere near as big as the increases the previous weeks,” they added.
Given the various risk factors stemming from weather forecasts, Russian gas supply through Ukraine, and Asian demand for liquefied natural gas, the market is still hesitant to accelerate any selling, analysts at Engie EnergyScan said in a note.
“For the moment, we are seeing limited profit taking,” they added.
The weather forecast for the next two weeks remains unchanged with relatively mild and unsettled conditions next week and a slightly cooler week after next week, LSEG meteorologist Georg Mueller said in his morning forecast.
Russia’s Gazprom GAZP.MM said it would send 42.4 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Friday, the same volume as the previous day.
Europe’s gas storage sites are 86.65% full, more than ten percentage points lower than in 2023 at the same time, the latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed.
In the European carbon market CFI2Zc1, the benchmark contract was down 0.11 euro at 67.52 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nora Buli; editing by Nina Chestney)