Dutch and British wholesale gas prices rose to around two-year highs on Monday morning as colder weather increased demand for gas and storage withdrawals rose.
The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub (TRNLTTFMc1) was up 2.22 euros at 58.20 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0902 GMT, the highest level since February 2023, according to LSEG data.
The Dutch April contract (TRNLTTFMc2) was up 2.49 euros at 58.03 euros/MWh.
In Britain, the front-month contract (NGLNMH5) rose by 5.34 pence at 141.45 p/therm, also a two-year high.
Forecasts for colder weather in north-west Europe for next week and into March have increased demand for gas and withdrawals from gas storage sites continue.
“Next week looks now like a proper cold spell with daily north-west Europe average temperatures dropping below zero from Sunday,” said LSEG gas analyst Saku Jussila.
“We expect the bullish trend to continue on the colder weather forecasts,” Jussila added.
Analysts at ING said gas stocks are already at their lowest for this time of year since the energy crisis in 2022. Inventories are 49% full compared with 67% at the same time last year.
Ukraine has also been increasing its gas imports from last week from Poland, Slovkia and Hungary after a series of Russian missile attacks in recent months targeted Ukrainian gas sector facilities.
Ukraine will continue to import natural gas at a high level of 16.3 million cubic metres (mcm) on Monday, the same volume it imported on Sunday, data provided by the operator of the state-run gas transmission system showed.
In the European carbon market (CFI2Zc1), the benchmark contract rose by 1.44 euros to 83.72 euros per metric ton.
Source: Reuters