EUROPE GAS - European prices rise on cold weather forecasts
The Dutch and British gas contract prices rose a little on Wednesday morning amid thin trading before a long Christmas holiday. Forecasts of a cold snap are expected to increase demand.
LSEG data showed that the benchmark Dutch front-month contract was 28.20 euros per megawatt hour or $9.75/mmBtu at 1021 GMT. This is an increase of 0.42 euros.
The Dutch contract for February was 0.30 euros higher at 27.90 euros/MWh. The British day-ahead contract for gas was 3.55 pence more expensive?at 75.00 pence per therm.
Riccardo Paraviero, LSEG analyst, said that the outlook for Christmas this year is bullish. Both Germany and France will likely show high consumption levels for the period, significantly higher than last year, due to a steep drop in temperature expected over Christmas Day.
The strong supply of LNG and natural gas from Norway will counter any potential increase in demand.
Gas Infrastructure Europe data shows that EU gas storage sites were 66.49% full last year.
The benchmark carbon contract in Europe was down by 0.46 euros, at 88.08 euro per metric ton. (Reporting and editing by Tomaszjanowski; Marwa Rashad)
(source: Reuters)
