Dutch and British wholesale gas prices rose on Thursday morning as colder weather lifted demand and forecasts showed low temperatures could extend into February.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub was up 0.40 euros at 33.50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0920 GMT, while the March contract was up 0.43 euros at 33.45 euros/MWh, LSEG data showed.

The British February contract was up 2.51 pence at 84.00 pence per therm.

Colder, below-normal weather is now forecast to last into the start of February, LSEG analyst Yuriy Onyshkiv said.

However, robust supply of Norwegian piped gas and liquefied natural gas is expected to limit price rises today, he added.

Norwegian pipeline gas volumes held above 350 million cubic metres (mcm) per day through most of December and at the start of January, Rystad Energy said in a note.

“We may see some colder-than-normal temperatures in the coming week, but overall fundamentals are too comfortable to allow prices to increase materially,” it added.

European gas storages were 86.07% full, the latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed.

Prices could have difficulty breaking above 35 euros/MWh and a drop towards 30 euros/MWh cannot be excluded later in the session, Engie EnergyScan said in its morning note.

DAY-AHEAD CONTRACT

The Dutch day-ahead contract TRNLTTFD1 rose 0.97 euros to 32.97 euros/MWh and the British equivalent was up 3 pence at 84 p/therm.

British demand for heating is set to rise by 13 mcm/day, but higher deliveries from storage and no exports via the Interconnector to Europe should help meet rising demand in a tight market, the LSEG’s Onyshkiv said.

Wind power generation will drop, with Britain’s Elexon forecasting peak output to fall from 9.1 gigawatts (GW) on Thursday to 7 GW on Friday, out of the total metered capacity of about 23 GW.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 was up 0.16 euro at 77.51 euros per metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo; editing by Jason Neely)