Dutch and British gas prices were up slightly on Friday morning but remain within their recent tight range as the gradual end of the maintenance season in Norway lifts supply but strikes in France curb liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries.
The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub was up €0.30 at €32.70 per megawatt hour (MWh), or $11.20/mmBtu, by 08:44 GMT, LSEG data showed.
The Dutch day-ahead contract was up €0.23 at €32.53/MWh.
The British front-month gas price was up 0.10p at 81.67p per therm while the day-ahead contract rose by 0.95p to 80.95 p/therm.
Norwegian flows towards continental Europe are expected to rise by 640 gigawatt hours (GWh) per day week on week to 2,450 GWh/d as more installations return from maintenance, LSEG analysts said in a weekly note.
This was "badly needed" to avoid digging too deep into storage supplies this early in the season, they added.
However, gas supplies at storage sites in Europe are likely to drop next week as colder weather and lower wind power generation increase gas demand while low deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from French terminals reduce supply, LSEG said.
French LNG terminal operator Elengy issued force majeure notices for its Montoir, Fos Tonkin and Fos Cavour sites, with no ship arrivals expected before October 2.
Europe looks on track to have an adequate end-October storage fill, Energy Aspects analysts said in a weekly note.
"But the lower fill implies significant upside price risk this winter in the event of cold weather," they added.
EU gas storage sites were 82 per cent full as of September 23, compared with 93.8 per cent at the same time last year, Gas Infrastructure Europe data showed.
(Reporting by Nora Buli Editing by David Goodman)
