European wholesale gas prices at the TTF hub rebounded amid strikes on gas infrastructure in Ukraine after falling to their lowest level in five months in early trade.
The benchmark front-month contract on the Dutch TTF hub (TRNLTTFMc1) rose by 1.91 euros to 39.94 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $/mmBtu, by 0939 GMT, LSEG data showed.
Earlier on Friday, it traded as low as 36.45 /MWh, its lowest level since Sept. 27, 2024.
The British front-month contract (TRGBNBPMc1), also has hit a five-month low and last traded 3.04 pence lower at 91 pence per therm.
The British day-ahead contract (TRGBNBPD1) was up 1.75 pence at 95 p/therm.
Russian forces targeted Ukraine’s energy and gas infrastructure in a drone and missile attack on Friday, damaging natural gas production facilities of Ukraine’s state-run oil and gas firm Naftogaz, the company said.
Ukraine’s largest private energy company DTEK said it has halted gas production at its facilities in Ukraine’s central Poltava region but Ukrainian gas imports from Europe remained at relatively low levels on Friday, data provided by the operator of the state-run gas transmission system showed.
“Fundamentally, there is a lot of upside risk left for the winter,” a European gas trader said.
Prices fell by around 7% on Thursday as a meeting by European leaders to discuss Ukraine and defence also saw them urging EU authorities and Kyiv to intensify talks following a halt to Russian gas transit through Ukraine.
The meeting conclusions called on the parties to “intensify efforts towards finding workable solutions to the gas transit issue, while taking into consideration the concerns raised by Slovakia”, but dropped mention of a “resumption” of flows that was in an earlier draft seen by Reuters.
The news accelerated a move by financial players to sell out of long positions, the trader said.
Net long positions by funds fell by 56.5 terawatt hours (TWh) last week to 175 TWh and are down from a high of nearly 300 TWh in early February, the latest available commitment of trader data showed.
EU countries seeking to loosen gas storage targets and expectation of a potential peace deal in Ukraine and milder weather are also weighing on wider market sentiment.
EU gas storage sites were last seen 37.17% full, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed, with the EU maintaining a 90% refilling target by Nov. 1.
In the European carbon market (CFI2Zc1), the benchmark contract was up 1.38 euro at 68.70 euros a metric ton.
Source: Reuters
