Prices fall due to Trump China comments

Dutch and British wholesale gasoline prices dropped on Friday after being rangebound earlier that day. This was prompted by new concerns about a U.S. - China trade war, and the falling price of oil.

The benchmark Dutch front month contract at TTF hub fell 0.66 euros to 34.26 euro per megawatt-hour (MWh) at 1318 GMT. This was a 10-day lowest, according to LSEG.

The July contract dropped by 1,18 euros, to 34.08 Euros/MWh.

Contracts earlier traded mostly flat, but showed a more clear downward trend as a response to

Comment by:

A trader claimed that Donald Trump, the U.S. president, had said China violated a tariff agreement with the United States.

The trader said that the news of OPEC+ producers discussing a larger July output increase this weekend was combined with lower oil prices and "not good for gas".

The British front-month contracts were down 1.06 pence to 83.40 pence per therm. Meanwhile, the weekend contracts were down 4.00 pence to 79.50 pence per therm.

Saku Jussila, LSEG analyst, said that prices are now largely at the same levels as before a Norwegian maintenance period which began last week.

Data from infrastructure operator Gassco revealed that the total Norwegian export nominated increased to 300 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d), from 296 mcm/d on Thursday afternoon.

Analysts at Jefferies Equity Research stated in a monthly report that TTF gas prices increased by almost 10 percent in May due to concerns about tariffs, the weather and further delays risk for upcoming LNG projects.

They said: "We continue seeing a tighter market in '25 due to increased European injection demand, lost Russian pipe imports (15bcm/yr) and LNG project delay."

Gas Infrastructure Europe data shows that European gas storage sites are 47.2% full.

The benchmark carbon contract in Europe was down by 0.46 euros at 70.47 euro per metric ton. Nora Buli, reporting from Oslo; Nina Chestney, editing)

(source: Reuters)