Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were little changed on Tuesday morning amid comfortable supply despite concerns about an escalation of the Iran-Israel conflict.
The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub (TRNLTTFMc1) rose by 1.11 euro to 38.56 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0722 GMT, according to LSEG data.
The August contract inched up by 0.06 euro to 38.22 euros/MWh.
The British contract for August was 0.49 pence lower at 92.71 pence per therm.
While the Israeli strike on Iran’s South Pars gas field and the threat of a potential blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have raised concerns over global LNG supply, it has had a relatively muted effect on gas prices so far.
“The effect of the situation on gas has been quite subdued but the market will be monitoring developments and risks for LNG,” a gas trader said.
Total Norwegian exports are nominated 16 million cubic metres (mcm) higher today at 267 mcm/day, with flows to continental Europe rising by 8 mcm to 244 mcm/day, despite several outages in Norway.
Demand for gas from power plants in north-west Europe is expected to rise by around 30% on the day ahead as wind power output is weak.
“Technical resistance blocked the price increase yesterday. We will see if this will still be the case today, knowing that the resilience of Asia JKM prices is supportive for TTF prices,” said analysts at Engie EnergyScan.
The European Commission is set to propose legal measures on Tuesday to enact a ban on Russian gas imports, with the aim of halting the EU’s reliance on Russian energy by the end of 2027.
However, an Austrian official said the European Union should be open to resuming Russian natural gas imports in the future if a peace deal is reached between Russia and Ukraine.
The Commission proposals are designed so they can pass into law with the approval of a reinforced majority of countries, meaning one or two could not block them.
In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract (CFI2Zc1) inched up by 0.02 euro to 75.36 euros per metric ton.
Source: Reuters