LONDON, July 20 (Reuters) - British gas prices rose on Wednesday morning with the system undersupplied while Dutch prices were mixed in a market nervously waiting news on Nord Stream 1 as maintenance is due to end on Thursday.
The British day-ahead contract rose by 36 pence to 230 pence per therm by 0913 GMT while the within-day contract rose by 38 pence to 225 pence per therm.
Traders said gas demand was high due expectations of to lower output from the country’s wind farms.
Peak wind power generation is forecast at 6.5 gigawatts (GW) on Wednesday, falling to 5.5 GW on Thursday compared with total metered capacity of around 20 GW, Elexon data showed.
“Wind speeds are dropping below seasonal norms over the second half of this week in north west Europe,” analysts at Refinitiv said in a daily research note.
Britain’s gas system was undersupplied by 17 million cubic metres (mcm) on Wednesday, National Grid data a showed.
In the Dutch market prices were mixed.
The front-month gas contract fell by 2.30 euros to 159.80 euros per megawatt hour (MWh). The day-ahead contract rose by 5.47 euros to 157.07 euros/MWh
Analysts at Engie said the market has been “adopting a waiting position in the face of uncertainty about the restart of Nord Stream 1 flows tomorrow.”
The major transport route for Russian gas has been offline since July 11 due to maintenance which is scheduled to end on Thursday.
However, there are concerns this could be extended with Italian and Germany governments warning it could be used as a pretext by Moscow to keep sending less gas to Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said late on Wednesday capacity of the pipeline, which was cut to 40% prior to the maintenance, could be further reduced due to slow progress in equipment servicing.
In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract fell by 1.82 euros to 81.80 euros a tonne.
(Reporting By Susanna Twidale; editing by Nina Chestney)
