Europe Gas: Prices slip on high storage levels and strong LNG supply

Dutch and British wholesale gas prices slipped on Tuesday morning as high gas storage levels and imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) helped to offset lower supply from Norway during its maintenance season.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub was down 0.62 euros at 37.88 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $12.27/mmBtu, by 0812 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The Dutch day-ahead TRNLTTFD1 contract was down 0.73 euros at 37.90 euros/Mwh.

In the British market, the day-ahead contract was down 0.95 pence at 91.65 pence per therm.

“We are now in the week with highest maintenance impact on the Norwegian Continental Shelf this summer. Total Norwegian export nominations have fallen by another 15 million cubic metres/day (mcm/d) to 173 mcm/d,” LSEG analyst Ulrich Weber said in a daily market note.

Europe’s gas storage sites, however, are 92.4% full, latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed, having already hit a Nov. 1 target of being 90% full.

“Despite this sharp drop in Norwegian supply, EU gas stocks continue to fill up well … This is probably explained by the resilience of Europe LNG imports,” Engie EnergyScan analysts said in a daily research note.

Supply of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine also remains stable.

Russian gas producer Gazprom GAZP.MM said it would send 42.4 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Tuesday, roughly the same volume as on Monday.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 fell by 0.74 euros to 69.69 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Marwa Rashad, Editing by Susanna Twidale and David Goodman)