European gas prices ease as storage levels remain high

Dutch wholesale gas prices eased on Monday morning in a small correction after last week's gains, although the need to refill storage before winter continued to provide support.

The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub was down by €0.20 at €33.30 per megawatt hour, or $1.39 per mmBtu, by 09:16 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The day-ahead contract was down €0.10 at €33/MWh.

The British market is closed due to a bank holiday.

Prices rebounded off a 15-month low last week as losses seen earlier in August were likely exaggerated and as peace hopes for Ukraine faded once again, Kasper Sander Nielsen, senior market analyst at Mind Energy, said in a morning report.

"We do however still expect Europe to reach its target of having storages 90 per cent full by November, and the market retreats early Monday," he added.

EU gas storage sites were last seen 75.6 per cent full, compared with 91 per cent seen at the same time over the last two years, Gas Infrastructure Europe data showed.

Nominations for Norwegian gas flows to Europe were up from 308 million cubic metres per day on Friday to 319 mcm/day on Monday, data from infrastructure operator Gassco showed.

They are set to drop sharply from the end of the week amid planned maintenance at several fields and processing plants.

Meanwhile, demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Asia is rising to refill storages there after a hot summer, Daniel Hynes, senior commodities strategist at ANZ Bank, said in a note.

Europe and Asia compete on price for shipped LNG supply, with rising demand in one region typically supporting prices in rival markets as well.

(Reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo; Editing by Jan Harvey)