London — Dutch and British wholesale gas prices mostly inched up on Friday morning after changes to Norwegian maintenance outages and on expectations of weaker wind output over the weekend.
The Dutch October contract was up 0.79 euro at 39.49 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) at 0850 GMT, while the Q4 contract was 0.90 euro higher at 43.50 euros/MWh.
In the British market, the weekend price rose by 1.50 pence to 98.00 pence per therm while the October contract rose by 0.68 pence to 101.25 pence/therm.
Gassco has published multiple changes to maintenance outages at Norwegian gas facilities which signal slightly more capacity being cut for the end of September and October and more outages added for next summer, said LSEG gas analyst Marina Tsygankova.
However, Norwegian exports were nominated at 222 million cubic metres (mcm) on Friday versus 198 mcm on Thursday, as the Troll field ramps up.
An Australian union alliance has called off strikes at Chevron’s two major local liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects, agreeing to resolve disputes that had threatened to disrupt around 7% of global LNG supplies.
The union alliance and Chevron accepted proposals on pay and conditions from the country’s industrial arbitrator for the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG facilities, and workers suspended strikes that began two weeks ago.
“The fundamental picture remains bearish for European gas markets with the end of LNG strikes in Australia, the progressive return of Norwegian flows, EU gas stocks full at 94.4%, gas demand remaining subdued in September and temperatures expected back above seasonal norms next week with decent levels of wind and solar generation,” said analysts at Engie EnergyScan.
In Britain, below normal wind power generation is supporting the return of gas-for-power demand, but stronger wind output is expected next week.
In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract inched up by 0.58 euro to 84.72 euros a tonne.
Reporting by Nina Chestney – Reuters
