Prices tread water in lacklustre market

Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were little changed on Tuesday amid tepid demand, stable supply of pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) and plentiful storage levels.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub (TRNLTTFMc1) rose by 0.07 euro to 33.52 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $10.55/mmbtu, by 0819 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The Dutch day-ahead contract (TRNLTTFD1) was up 0.23 euro at 33.23euros/MWh.

In the British market, the day-ahead contract (TRGBNPD1) eased by 0.25 pence to 78.35 pence per therm, with the within-day contract (TRGBNPWKD) 0.50 pence lower at 78.00 p/therm.

"While storages see further additions to their already solid levels, current demand appears rather muted," analysts at Energi Danmark said in their morning report.

"This situation also seems unlikely to change in the near term as forecasts show moderate temperatures this week, which itself limits cooling demand," they added.

European gas storage facilities were last seen 77.4% full, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data.

There was little change in the short-term market picture, amid stable supplies from Norwegian pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG), LSEG analyst Yuriy Onyshkiv said in a daily note.

Local distribution zone demand in Europe is expected to increase by 91 gigawatt hours/day (GWh/d) on Wednesday.

"But we don't expect this to have an effect on spot prices today in light of the overall looseness," Onyshkiv said.

Meanwhile, the risk of unplanned maintenances in or outside of Europe that could potentially affect supplies to northwestern Europe remain an upside price risk, he added.

The supply of gas to Europe from Russia via Ukraine remained stable, with Gazprom GAZP saying it would send 42.4 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas via Ukraine on Tuesday, in line with recent volumes.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract (CFI2Zc1) eased by 0.35 euro to 68.40 euros per metric ton.