European gas prices decline on robust LNG supply, higher wind output

LONDON: British and Dutch gas prices mostly declined on Monday morning on robust liquefied natural gas (LNG) volumes and as higher wind power output was set to lower gas-for-power demand.

The British contract for February delivery was down 7.50 pence at 202.50 pence per therm by 1102 GMT, while the Dutch March contract was 2.78 euros lower at 83.50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh).

In Britain, wind power output is expected to rise above the seasonal norm over the next couple of weeks, which could lower power-for-gas demand.

Asian spot liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices fell last week amid ample stock levels and a mild temperature forecast, helping to maintain a steady flow of cargoes heading to Europe.

LNG send-out in northwest Europe is forecast today at 1,809 gigawatt hours (GWh) per day, up from 1687GWh/d on Friday, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

However, the Dutch front-month contract was up by 1.15 euros at 84.50 euros/MWh.

Russia’s Gazprom did not book gas transit capacity for exports via Yamal-Europe pipeline for February or two other crossing points into Ukraine on Monday morning.

It did book around 11.14 mcm/day of capacity via Velke Kapusany on the Slovakia-Ukraine border for Thursday.

Total Norwegian export nominations have fallen by 12 million cubic metres (mcm) to 316 mcm/day due to more outages at fields, reducing flows to Britain and continental Europe.

An outage at the Troll field has been extended to Jan. 19, while unplanned outages have started at Skarv and Sleipner over the weekend.

Temperatures in Britain and north-west Europe are forecast to be mostly below the seasonal norm over the next two weeks, which could raise demand for heating.