After a 1-month low, the price of gas in Europe has seen a small increase.

The Dutch and British wholesale prices of gas traded slightly higher on Thursday morning, after having hit a one-month low the day before. This was due to full storages as well as a rising supply of liquefied gas (LNG), which offset fewer pipeline gas deliveries from Norway or Algeria.

LSEG data shows that the benchmark front-month contract for the Dutch TTF hub rose by 0.60 euros to 36.25 Euro per megawatt hour or $11.78/mmBtu at 0838 GMT.

The contract dropped to 35.65 Euros/MWh on Wednesday, its lowest level since August 5.

The British day-ahead contract rose 1.40 pence, to 86.50 cents per therm.

Analysts at ING stated in a recent report that "the weakness in the market is despite ongoing maintenance in Norway as well as a significant decline in North African pipeline flow into Italy over the past few days."

They added that this was offset by the fact that LNG is now flowing at a higher rate and being stored in greater quantities.

According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, the daily send-out of LNG gas from Europe's LNG Terminals was 3,028 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in July, a figure last seen at that time.

GIE data shows that Europe's gas storage facilities are 92.6% filled.

In a daily report, Engie Energyscan analysts said that "the evolution of the Norwegian supplies... does not seem to be a reason for concern."

Data from Gassco revealed that the number of Norwegian gas piped deliveries to Britain and continental Europe was 189 million cubic meters (mcm), down from 195mcm/day Wednesday.

According to the latest maintenance schedules, Friday through Sunday will see the most significant production reductions.

Gazprom, a Russian gas producer, said that it will send the same amount of gas via Ukraine to Europe on Thursday as it did on Wednesday.

The benchmark contract on the European carbon markets eased by 0.11 euros to 66.89 euro per metric ton.

(source: Reuters)