The benchmark Dutch gas contract was mixed on Monday morning, trading in a narrow range as stronger wind speeds helped lower gas demand for power generation while the market monitored updates of U.S.-Russia talks to end the war in Ukraine.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub (TRNLTTFMc1) was almost flat at 50.75 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $15.59/mmBtu, by 1004 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The contract fell last week to 49.25 euros/MWh, the lowest level since January 29.

The British day-ahead contract (TRGBNBPD1) was down 1.25 pence at 124.55 pence per therm while the Dutch day-ahead contract (TRNLTTFD1) shed 0.32 euros to 51.28 euros/MWh.

A slightly colder weather is expected in Northwest Europe over the next few days, which would lift gas demand for heating on the day ahead by 228 gigawatt hour per day (GWh/d) to 5541 GWh/d, LSEG data showed.

Talks of a potential deal being made between the U.S. and Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, whilst appearing to exclude Ukraine and Europe from the discussions, appear to be giving the energy markets some confidence, consultancy Auxilione said.

Overlaying that is the realisation that the European energy storage refilling plans need to be reconsidered with several discussions around a potential relaxation of the aggressive refill required this summer, it said in a morning report.

“All of these factors will be confidence boosting for the market in general as it holds its current course of stripping out some of the risk premium built up over many recent weeks,” Auxilione analysts said.

EU rules stipulate storage sites must be 90% full by Nov. 1, with several interim targets along the way. EU gas storage sites have depleted faster this winter because of colder and less windy weather and are now about 44.61% full, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe shows.

In the European carbon market (CFI2Zc1), the benchmark contract was down 0.75 euros at 79.00 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters