British and Dutch wholesale gas prices were mixed on Feb. 2 on cold weather forecasts, reduction in gas storage and Norway outage, although strong flows of LNG were lending some support.
The Dutch front-month contract inched down by 1.3 euro to 58.00 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh) by 0946 GMT, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.
The contract is down more than 21% year-to-date.
The British April contract inched up by 1 pence to 154 pence per therm, while the day-ahead contract was down by 1.4 pence to 149.10 p/therm.
"We're undersupplied a bit so need storage, and with the colder weather we will need to pay up. We are a bit bullish and might go above 60 euros towards 62 euros at some point," a European gas trader said.
European gas storage were 72.1% full, according to the latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe, while average temperatures are expected to dip between 0.5 C and 3 C below normal levels next week, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
Outages at Gullfaks and Kollsnes in Norway have also led to lower nominations for the continent but flows of LNG are a support factor.
"This mixed picture is also supported by news of a decline in U.S. exports with on going delays at Freeport," analysts at Refinitiv said in a morning report.
U.S. exports LNG declined 5% to 6.84 million tonnes in January compared to the prior month as cold weather boosted domestic demand and as producers sent less gas to European customers, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
Freeport LNG has received regulatory approvals to start commissioning one of its three LNG trains in Texas but it will take some time until it is able to load LNG into ships.
U.K. peak wind generation is forecast at 18.1 gigawatts (GW) on Thursday and at 18.2 GW on Friday, out of a total metered capacity of 22 GW.
In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 rose by 1.32 euros at 96.77 euros a tonne.
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