Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were mixed on Wednesday morning, trading in a very tight range amid stabilising Norwegian supply, softer demand despite warmer weather forecast andsupply concernsamid high cooling demand due to heatwaves in Asia.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 was up by 0.1 euro at 34.72 euros ($37.29) per megawatt hour (MWh), or $10.92/mmbtu, by 0906 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The Dutch day-ahead contract TRNLTTFD1 was up 0.6 euros at 34.76 euros/MWh.

In the British market, the day-ahead contract TRGBNBPD1 inched up by 0.5 pence to 82.5 pence per therm, LSEG data showed.

“The region’s storage facilities remain awash with gas. Norwegian flows are normalising following unplanned outages earlier this month. (Meanwhile) Concerns of stronger demand are also driving North Asian LNG prices higher,” Daniel Hynes, senior commodity strategist at ANZ bank wrote in a daily note.

Temperatures in Northwest Europe have risen to about 2°C above normal and they should remain there throughout the forecast horizon, LSEG data showed.

Concerns of tightening supplies are therefore rising, as heatwaves in Asia and the United States have already raised LNG prices to a six-month high.

Traders and analysts expect Europe to increase its LNG imports in the third quarter to support storage build.

European gas storage facilities were last seen 73.85% full, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 rose by 0.51 euros to 68.50 euros per metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Marwa Rashad; Editing by Rashmi Aich)