EUROPE GAS-Prices ease at heat wave ebbs but Trump-Putin summit in focus

Aug 14 (Reuters) - Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were down on Tuesday morning on signs of lower gas demand as temperatures eased and wind speeds were set to rise, but the market remains cautious of bigger moves ahead of Friday's Trump-Putin summit.

The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 inched down 0.17 euro to 32.55 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0822 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The Dutch day-ahead contract TRNLTTFD1 was down 0.30 euro at 32.05 euros/MWh, while the British day-ahead price TRGBNBPD1 was down 1.32 pence at 79.00 pence per therm.

Gas-for-power demand is set to ease amid rising wind power generation and as the peak of a current heatwave in Europe passes, with temperatures significantly cooler by Monday, LSEG analyst Ulrich Weber said.

French nuclear power capacity, which has been curbed by cooling water issues, should also recover next week, he added.

Norwegian gas supply to Europe was steady at 324 million cubic metres (mcm) per day, data from operator Gassco showed.

Meanwhile, speculators are likely reducing risk and cutting net long positions ahead of Friday's meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin, which may yield a ceasefire or stricter sanctions, ING analysts said.

"A ceasefire would likely put some immediate downward pressure on prices and lead to increased noise around a restart of some Russian pipeline flows into Europe, as we saw earlier in the year," they added, but deemed a restart of pipeline flows as "very unlikely".

In other news, British Gas owner Centrica and U.S.-based infrastructure investor Energy Capital Partners will jointly buy National Grid's Grain LNG terminal, Europe's largest such facility.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 was down 0.44 euro at 71.30 euros per metric ton.