Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were mixed on Thursday morning, trading in a tight range on stable Norwegian supply, strong inventories and an expected drop in temperatures much closer to seasonal norms.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub was up by 0.41 euros at 34.58 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0906 GMT. The August contract was up 0.50 euros at 34.90 euros/MWh, LSEG data showed.

The weekend contract was down by 0.55 euros at 33.90 euros/MWh.

In the British market, the July contract rose by 0.14 pence to 79.15 pence per therm.

Higher Norwegian exports to Europe are expected because of strong production while temperatures in northwest Europe are expected to drop to seasonal norms from Friday until July 1, LSEG data showed.

“Weather above a comfort temperature of around 18 C will have minimal impact on heating demand, resulting in LDZ (demand for heating) to be mostly flat,” LSEG analyst Tomasz Marcin Kowalski said in a daily note.

“Low seasonal heat demand, higher renewable capacity and robust imports have resulted in a strong injection into storage.”

European gas storage facilities were last seen 75.95% full, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows.

“The market needs more to come out of its wait-and-see position,” analysts at Engie’s EnergyScan said in a daily note.

In Britain, demand for gas is set to fall on moderate temperatures and an expected increase in wind generation, said Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at ANZ.

Peak wind power generation in the UK is forecast at 16 gigawatts (GW) on Thursday and 17.4 GW on Friday, Elexon data shows.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 edged up by 0.74 euros to 67.60 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Marwa Rashad, Editing by David Goodman)