Day-ahead gas prices across Continental European gas hubs rose Friday morning, despite lower UK NBP prices, as colder temperatures are expected for the weekend and the beginning of next week.
The Dutch TTF day-ahead rose 35 euro cent to Eur24.25/MWh, while the Dutch front month traded up 30 euro cent to Eur25.30/MWh by midday.
Forward Dutch gas flow nominations through the BBL line to the UK dropped off from around 25.8 million cubic meters/day to just 4.3 million cu m/day Friday morning with virtual reverse flow nominations remaining at similar levels to net off all physical BBL exports from the Netherlands.
Temperatures across German and Dutch cities are expected to fall 2-4 degrees Celsius below the seasonal norm over the weekend, with similar temperatures expected for the beginning of next week, according to data from forecaster CustomWeather.
However, strong Norwegian flows into the UK mean that market players are not concerned about supply over the colder period, traders said. On the German NetConnect the day-ahead recovered from late falls of around Eur1.00 to trade up midday by 65 euro cent to Eur24.90/MWh.
However, the GASPOOL day-ahead continued to hold a premium over its neighbor at Eur25.15/MWh midday, up 5 euro cent from its last close, with continued buying interest on the contract, a trader said.
Bucking the morning's bullish trend was France's PEG Nord contract which corrected down 65 euro cent from Eur25.50/MWh at Thursday's close to slightly below the NCG contract at Eur24.85/MWh midday, in line with the previous day's midday price.
Meanwhile, rangebound Brent crude prices resulted in modest moves on the TTF forward curve.
At 1100 GMT, December ICE Brent was down 25 cents at $109.51/barrel with Summer 12 holding firm to its previous close of Eur24.85/MWh while the Cal 12 contract firmed 10 euro cent to Eur25.90/MWh.
