Dutch and German gas spot and prompt gas prices rose Thursday morning, with oil prices providing support for a second consecutive day.
ICE Brent crude futures rose above $50/b, triggered by lower US crude stocks, increased risk appetite, and a weaker dollar.
At around midday London time, the TTF day-ahead contract traded at Eur13.40/MWh, up 20 euro cent from Wednesday's close.
GASPOOL and NetConnect day-ahead gained 27.5 euro cent and 37.5 euro cent, respectively, with the last trades seen at Eur13.475/MWh and Eur13.40/MWh.
However, spot prices saw some movements in the morning. NetConnect day-ahead opened the session high with a trade seen at Eur13.50/MWh near 9 am London time. On the opposite TTF day-ahead gained value with an early trade at Eur13.30/MWh around 8:30 am.
German shippers were injecting 13.73 million cu m into storage Thursday at the opening, compared with 13.63 million cu Wednesday, according to Gas storage Europe. German stocks were 52.1% full at 11.41 Bcm.
In the Netherlands, shippers were injecting 63.29 million cu m into storage at about midday, compared with 45.4 million cu m Tuesday at the same time, data from Eclipse Energy, an analytics unit of S&P Global Platts, showed.
Spot prices rose despite temperatures being forecast to rise in Europe in coming days. CustomWeather forecast Amsterdam to rise from 1 degree Celsius below seasonal norms Thursday to 1 C above Friday.
In Berlin, which is in the GASPOOL area, temperatures were forecast to be at norms Thursday and 2 C above Friday. Munich, in the NetConnect area, was expected to be 1 C below average Thursday and at 1 C above norms on Friday.
According to Eclipse, end of day domestic consumption in Germany was expected to be 164.6 million cu m on Thursday and Friday.
In the Netherlands, Eclipse indicated consumption was also flat at 65.2 million cu m for Thursday and Friday.
Eclipse's short-term demand model is calculated from latest demand, temperature and wind speed out-turns in addition to deviations between weather forecasts and these last out-turns.
On the supply side, real-time Norwegian flow rates into Emden-Dornum on the Dutch/German border stood at around 147.4 million cu m/d at midday London time, according to network operator Gassco, up 1 million cu m from Wednesday at the same time.
TTF June and GASPOOL both gained 20 euro cent to Eur13.45/MWh and Eur13.575/MWh, respectively, while NetConnect gained 17.5 euro cent, with the last trade seen at Eur13.575/MWh.
