Gas prices on Continental Europe's trading hubs were seen higher on the prompt Monday morning, with temperatures in Germany and the Benelux region set to remain below seasonal averages in the coming week, keeping demand high, while curve contracts also climbed higher, despite falling oil.
At midday London time, the Dutch TTF day-ahead contract was seen trading at Eur28.80/MWh, up by 80 euro cent from the close on Friday.
In the neighboring German markets, both NetConnect and GASPOOL day-ahead prices gained 45 euro cent to Eur28.55/MWh and Eur28.45/MWh respectively.
Despite these gains, day-ahead prices remained below levels seen on Thursday, when the TTF closed at Eur29.50/MWh, the NetConnect at Eur29.60/MWh and the GASPOOL at Eur29.30/MWh, according to Platts data.
April gas on the TTF was also up, by 25 euro cent from Friday, changing hands at Eur26.40/MWh.
At the UK NBP, gas for Tuesday delivery was seen 4.90 pence/therm higher than its Friday close at 78.75 p/th.
At midday London time, forecast demand in the UK stood at 313.1 million cubic meters, compared with seasonal normal demand of 277.2 million cu m, National Grid showed.
According to Platts unit Bentek Energy, this led to increased demand in the UK for gas from Belgium and the Netherlands, cutting into German imports of high-calorific gas from these countries, with flows from the Netherlands at 4 million cu m, compared with a peak of 14 million cu m in the previous week. Bentek said Germany was replacing some of this gas with higher imports from Russia through Nord Stream and Poland, and from Austria.
Forecaster CustomWeather showed that temperatures in Germany and the Benelux region will remain below normal in the coming week. 5/-2 degrees Celsius were forecast for Amsterdam, 3/-6 C for Berlin and 2/-3 C for Hamburg on Wednesday, with temperatures set to drift slightly lower in the weekend.
Temperatures in London on Wednesday were set to be 6 C below the seasonal high/low of 12/4 C.
Meanwhile, later-dated TTF contracts were also seen trading higher from Friday, despite front-month Brent crude being seen, at 1155 GMT, $1.41/barrel lower at $108.41/b.
The Summer 13 contract was up by 20 euro cent at Eur26.15/MWh, while gas for delivery in 2014 was changing hands at Eur26.65/MWh, an increase of 10 euro cent.