EUROPE GAS-Prices steady ahead of US-Ukraine meeting

LONDON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were largely steady on Monday morning after talks in Alaska on Friday failed to secure a ceasefire and ahead of a meeting in Washington today between the United States and Ukraine and European leaders.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Ukraine should make a deal to end the war with Russia and that he agreed with Putin that a peace deal should be sought without the prior ceasefire that Ukraine and its European allies had demanded.

Now, the focus will be on Trump's meeting in Washingtonwith Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European leaders, amid fears the U.S. president could try to pressure Kyiv into accepting a settlement favourable to Moscow.

The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 inched up by 0.12 euro to 31.00 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0733 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The Winter 2025 price TRNLTTFSc1 was 0.33 euro lower at 32.20 euros/MWh.

The British September price TRGBNBPMU5 was down 1.54 pence at 74.71 pence per therm.

European natural gas prices came under pressure last week ahead of the Trump-Putin summit, with TTF prices falling to their lowest since July 2024, analysts at ING said.

"Investment funds probably wanted to reduce risk heading into the weekend, given the uncertainty over how the talks could have unfolded," they said.

The premium of the Japan Korea Marker has therefore widened to European gas which could mean liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes are diverted to Asia.

"However, with EU gas storage levels at around 74% full and lagging both last year’s levels and the five-year average, Europe will need to continue to see strong LNG inflows in order to get close to the 90% storage target," ING added.

Demand in north-west Europe is seen flat as temperatures are forecast to decline below normal levels for a few days and wind output forecasts are higher.

Norway's Hammerfest LNG terminal shut its production of liquefied natural gas during the weekend due an overheating electrical transformer, a spokesperson for operator Equinor said on Monday.

North-west Europe LNG send-out is expected to rise by 332 gigawatt hours (GWh) from Friday to 2,009 GW today due to send-out recovery at the Gate, Montoir and Fos terminals, LSEG data showed.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 was down 0.33 euro at 70.35 euros per metric ton.