The price of gas in Europe is rising due to the Norwegian power outages and a weaker wind output

On Wednesday morning, Dutch and British wholesale prices of gas rose slightly due to the outage in Norway and the forecasts for a weaker wind output.

LSEG data shows that the benchmark front-month contract for the Dutch TTF hub increased by 0.30 euros to 40.20 Euro per megawatt hour at 0753 GMT.

The day-ahead contract in the British market was 1.50 pence more expensive at 97.50 cents per therm.

"NBP (UK Gas) is up more than TTF (Dutch Gas). This seems to be more related to the planned Oseberg outage tomorrow. Gas traders said that prices were generally quite volatile.

The total Norwegian exports have increased by 3 million cubic meters (mcm), but the unplanned outages continue at Gullfaks, and Oseberg.

Saku Jussila, LSEG analyst, explained that the Oseberg gas field will also have a planned outage beginning tomorrow. This could primarily impact flows via the Langeled pipe to Britain.

The demand for gas could increase if wind power drops tomorrow.

Elexon data shows that peak UK wind generation will be around 17 gigawatts today and 8.7 GW by tomorrow.

Analysts at Engie EnergyScan said that TTF prices were traded in a narrow range yesterday. This suggests that they are currently in an equilibrium that the market deems fair, given that EU stocks remain comfortable and that there are various factors that could threaten the European Gas Balance.

They added that "at the moment there is no element fundamental which can definitively push [them] in a clearly defined direction."

The benchmark contract on the European carbon markets fell by 0.04 euros to 65.05 Euros per metric ton.

(source: Reuters)