EUROPE GAS: Cold spell pushes Dutch benchmark contract up by one month

Dutch and British gas rates rose on Monday, the European benchmark contract reaching a one-month high after the holidays, due to strong demand due to the cold weather.

LSEG data shows that the benchmark Dutch front-month contract for?the?? hub at a price of 28.38 euros per Megawatt Hour (MWh) or $9.80/mmBtu was up by 0.28 euros as of 0857 GMT.

On Monday morning it traded up to 28,67 euros/MWh, its highest price since November 28.

The British day-ahead price of gas?was up?1.10 pence to 75 pence/therm, while the front-month contracts was up?1.3 p/therm.

LSEG data shows that temperatures in north-west Europe will rise to an average of 2.5C by next week. This is still slightly below normal.

The cold Arctic air will continue to affect most of Europe until the end of next week. However, a more mild pattern may emerge by mid-January according to LSEG's Georg Mueller.

The demand for electricity in the local distribution zone (LDZ), which is mainly driven by heating, will be flat at 4,980 gigawatt-hours (GWh) a day.

The non-LDZ demand (which includes the power'sector) is expected to increase by 150 GWh, to 3,083 GWh/day.

Elexon data showed that the peak wind power output of Britain will?decrease from 9.2 gigawatts on Monday to just 8.6 GW by Tuesday.

Gas Infrastructure Europe's data shows that EU gas storage facilities are 63.73% full compared to 74% last year. Data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed that EU gas storage sites were 63.73% full, compared to 74% at the same time last year.

The benchmark contract on the European carbon markets was down by 0.49 euros, at 87.52 euro per metric ton. Reporting by Nora Buli, Editing by David Goodman

(source: Reuters)