British and Dutch wholesale gas prices were flat on Thursday as solid inventories and strong flows of liquefied natural gas (LNG) eased concerns over delayed injections due to outages at a number of facilities in Norway and Denmark.
The Dutch front-month contract was 0.14 euro higher at 34.83 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), by 0829 GMT, while the day-ahead contract fell by 0.90 euro to 34.45 EUR/MWh, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
A European gas trader said the maintenance had led some buyers to delay injections into storage but with stock levels already high this had not impacted prices.
“The market is well supplied now… so today is bearish again unless there are any (maintenance) extensions or outages,” the trader said.
Maintenance at Nybro in Denmark is shutting down imports through Baltic Pipe for five days until the morning of May 13, Refinitiv data showed, while Norway’s Troll Field has maintenance with a capacity reduction of 31mcm/d until June 11.
In addition, maintenance at Karsto gas processing plant in Norway was will last until the morning of May 14. Capacity reduction remains at 20mcm/d and further maintenance, with an impact of 5mcm/d, is scheduled from May 19 until June 14.
However, European gas stocks remained high, with Europe’s gas stores 62.3% full, according to latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe and LNG supply is steadily flowing to Europe, LNG/TKUK
“Barring any unplanned event on the supply side, we keep a stable to bearish outlook for European gas prices today,” analysts at Engie’s EnergyScan said, adding that gas prices at the Dutch TTF hub still have some downside potential.
In Britain, the gas system was undersupplied by 2.1 million cubic meters (mcm) on Thursday, National Grid data showed.
Peak wind power generation in Britain is forecast at 1.9 gigawatts (GW) for Thursday, rising to 7.2 GW on Friday, out of a total metered capacity of 22 GW.
In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 was down by 0.28 euros to 89.21 euros a tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting By Marwa Rashad; Editing by Susanna Twidale)