Dutch and British wholesale gas prices ticked up on Tuesday morning as warmer weather is set to lift power demand for cooling and competition increases for liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub was up by 0.33 euro at 34.63 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $10.88/mmbtu, by 0917 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The Dutch day-ahead contract TRNLTTFD1 was up 0.48 euros at 34.63 euros/MWh.

In the British market, the day-ahead contract TRGBNBPD1 inched up by 0.15 pence to 82.15 pence per therm.

“The main drivers haven’t really changed, there’s just nervousness around the market regarding supply and probably LNG,” a trader said.

There was now focus on cooling demand in Europe, with some regions seeing hot weather, while heatwaves should also lift demand in Asia and the United States, impacting LNG prices, the trader added.

“Ongoing concerns about flows from Russia to southern and central Europe, as well as high LNG competition, curbs the downside,” analysts at Energi Danmark said in their morning report.

Russian gas producer Gazprom said it would send 42.4 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Tuesday, unchanged from Monday.

Norwegian gas supply was a touch lower on Tuesday amid outages at the Visund and Skarv fields, data from pipeline system operator Gassco showed.

Total Norwegian export nominations stood at 327 million cubic metres per day, down from 333 mcm/day on Monday, according to Gassco.

Meanwhile, below-normal wind power generation is also supporting gas-for-power demand until the end of the week, LSEG analyst Ulrich Weber said.

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 Nora Buli in Oslo; Editing by Nina Chestney)