Dutch and British wholesale gas prices eased on Thursday morning as supply from Russia via Ukraine and from Norway remained steady.
The benchmark front-month contract for Dutch TTF hub was trading 0.74 euros lower at 35.40 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), by 0834 GMT.
In the British market, the day-ahead contract TRGBNBPD1 was 2.28 pence down at 85.75 pence per therm.
Prices rose on Wednesday on a combination of supply concerns, including any impact of hurricane Francine on U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports and a five-day extension of maintenance work at the Norway’s Kollsnes processing plant, analysts at ING said.
There was also nervousness around Russian gas flows through Ukraine, with preliminary nomination data indicating flows could drop from the usual 42 million cubic metres (mcm) per day to just under 30 mcm/day on Thursday.
“However, the latest nomination data should ease these concerns, as it now shows that gas flows should be in a normal range on Thursday,” they said.
Russia’s Gazprom said it would send 42.4 mcm of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Thursday, a volume in line with recent days.
“We believe the market has absorbed the recent bullish drivers, including the hurricane in the U.S. and colder weather in Europe,” LSEG analyst Yuriy Onyshkiv said in a morning report, adding that he was expecting prices to stay largely flat.
Total Norwegian export nominations are up by 1 mcm/day at 197 mcm/day on Thursday morning, data from pipeline operator Gassco showed.
In Britain, the gas system is forecast 17.8 mcm/day long on Thursday, National Gas data showed.
Peak wind power generation in Britain is expected to drop from 12.8 gigawatts (GW) on Thursday to 7.5 GW on Friday, Elexon data showed.
Lower wind output typically results in higher demand for gas from power plants.
The weather in continental Europe and Britain will be cool and wet until the weekend but turn drier and warmer next week, LSEG meteorologist Georg Mueller said.
In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 was 0.84 euro lower at 65.56 euros per metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo; editing by Nina Chestney)