EUROPE GAS-European price rise on colder, less windy outlook, LNG outage

OSLO, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Dutch and British gas prices rose on Wednesday morning, supported by a colder and less windy weather outlook and an outage at the Freeport liquefied natural gas plant in the U.S., while gas storages remain below previous years' levels.

The benchmark Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub TRNLTTFMc1 was up 0.60 euro at 27.50 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), or $9.44/mmBtu, by 0941 GMT, LSEG data showed.

The February contract TRNLTTFMc2 gained 0.45 euro to 27.19 euros/MWh.

The British day-ahead gas prices TRGBNBPD1 were 1.40 pence higher at 70.50 pence per therm.

Prices were likely reacting to a combination of colder weather forecasts extending to late January, less wind later in December, an outage at Freeport LNG and the underlying risk associated with low gas storage levels, a trader said.

The weather factors should lift gas demand both for heating and from the power sector, he added.

Weather forecasts have confirmed that the final 10 days of December will be drier and increasingly colder with below-normal temperatures, LSEG meteorologist Georg Mueller said.

One of the three liquefaction trains at Freeport LNG export plant in Texas shut on Tuesday, according to regulatory filings.

"If the outage were to continue, it could have a major impact on U.S. LNG exports and on gas prices in Europe and Asia," analysts at Engie EnergyScan said in a note.

EU gas storage sites were last 69.29% full, compared with 77.91% at the same time last year, Gas Infrastructure Europe data showed.

Still, Norwegian pipeline gas nominations to Europe are currently at around 347 million cubic metres (mcm) per day marking their highest level since August 2024, data from infrastructure operator Gassco showed.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 was up 0.56 euro at 87.92 euros a metric ton, its highest level since August 2023.