Prices little changed as major supply risks ease

Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were little changed on Friday morning as supply risks eased due to the U.S. Hurricane Francine weakening and amid forecasts for warmer weather.

The benchmark front-month contract for Dutch TTF hub edged up by 0.52 euro to 35.78 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 1029 GMT, while the November contract was 0.40 euro higher at 37.45 euros/MWh, LSEG data showed.

In the British market, the day-ahead contract TRGBNBPD1 was 1.50 pence higher at 86.75 pence per therm.

U.S. Gulf of Mexico energy producers were preparing to restart some output after Hurricane Francine disrupted operations. The Hurricane has weakened from a Category 2 hurricane to a tropical depression as it moved northeast.

“(There are) no major changes to our short-term balance forecast which continues to indicate lower demand next week amid warmer temperatures,” LSEG analyst Yuriy Onyshkiv said.

“There remains an upside risk in case of any extensions in Norwegian outages. Yet, any minor changes to the current schedule are unlikely to shift the market sentiment greatly,” he added.

Russia’s Gazprom said it would send 42.3 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Friday, in line with recent days.

In Britain, average temperatures expected to rise over the next seven days by 7 degrees Celsius to peak at 16C on Thursday, LSEG data showed.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 was 0.13 euro lower at 65.30 euros per metric ton.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Marwa Rashad; editing by Nina Chestney)