EUROPE GAS-Dutch gas stable amid lower demand, healthy supply

LONDON, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Dutch wholesale gas prices were little changed on Wednesday morning amid lower demand and robust supply.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 inched down by 0.28 euro to 49.33 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0853 GMT, according to LSEG data.

The Dutch April contract TRNLTTFMc2 edged up by 0.09 euro to 49.67 euros/MWh.

In Britain, the month-ahead contract rose by 3.22 pence to 120.25 pence per therm, while other contracts traded lower.

Dutch gas prices rose on Tuesday afternoon after a draft EU document showed the Commission would work with member states on softening rules governing winter gas storage to lower costs for industry and make it more competitive.

Even though this news would usually be bearish as it could ease concerns about racing to refill depleting gas storage sites, it triggered some technical buying.

"Given the improvement in European spot fundamentals, additional upside potential should be limited. But given the many risk factors involved, no scenario can be totally ruled out," said analysts at Engie EnergyScan.

Norwegian flow nominations to Britain are 15 million cubic metres (mcm) lower due to re-routing of flows to continental Europe as the TTF day-ahead price is trading at a slight premium to the British day-ahead price, LSEG data showed.

In north-west Europe, demand is forecast to fall due to a rise in temperatures over the next few days and strong wind output, while liquefied natural gas flows were robust.

In the European carbon market CFI2Zc1, the benchmark contract was down 1.08 euro at 74.66 euros a metric ton.