The price of gas in Europe is falling amid profit-taking

The Dutch and British wholesale gas prices fell on Wednesday morning as profit-taking and Slovakia's SPP announced that it would take measures to guarantee supply because of the risk of Ukraine ending its transit at the end the year.

LSEG data shows that the benchmark front-month contract for the Dutch TTF hub fell by 0.10 euros to 43.45 Euro per megawatt hour at 1025 GMT.

The Dutch day-ahead contracts fell 0.55 euros to 43.15 Euros/MWh.

The British contract for the month of December dropped by 2.20 pence, to 110.50 cents per therm.

Dutch gas reached a record high for the year on Monday, due to the forecasts of temperatures that would be in the single digits through December and a low wind output. However, yesterday the price fell.

Gas analyst Timothy Crump at LSEG said that prices are likely to experience a further retracement as a result of profit-taking and the fact that storages remain at 92% capacity.

The demand for LNG and Norwegian gas is stable, but the supply is also steady.

LSEG data shows that temperatures are expected to rise by an average of 1.2 degrees Celsius on the next day in North-West Europe, but will continue to drop this month.

SPP, the Slovakian gas pipeline company, said it supported the continuation of the transit of gas through Ukraine, but that due to the possibility of this stopping, they are taking steps to ensure supply.

It has also agreed to a pilot short-term contract with SOCAR in Azerbaijan for gas.

(source: Reuters)