EUROPE GAS-Prices extend losses as market eyes Iran war developments
LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - Dutch and British wholesale gas contracts extended losses on Tuesday morning, following a sharp drop in the previous session, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would postpone military strikes on Iran and that a deal with Iran could be reached "within five days or sooner".
The Dutch front-month contract at the TTF hub TFMBMc1 was down 3.22% at 54.85 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0947 GMT, data from the Intercontinental Exchange showed.
It had fallen to an intra-day low of 53.74 euros/MWh on Monday.
The British contract for April NGLNMc1 was 1.39% down at 141.28 pence/therm, having traded in the range of 132.79 to 159.47 p/therm on Monday.
"The market relaxed on hopes of a near peace (deal) but the underlying picture remains highly unstable, with continued war operations reinforcing the fragility of the energy outlook. Reactive to Trump’s announcements, the gas market, like oil, will continue to follow the situation around the U.S./Israel–Iran war," said LSEG analyst Dzmitry Dauhalevich.
Iran launched multiple waves of missiles at Israel on Tuesday, the Israeli military said. Iran's powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf - who an Israeli official and two other sources familiar with the matter said was the interlocutor in the talks on the Iranian side - said no negotiations had taken place.
"No negotiations have been held with the U.S., and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the U.S. and Israel are trapped," he wrote on X.
Meanwhile, temperatures across north-west Europe are set to decline from tomorrow into the weekend. Local distribution zone demand, which refers to gas demand for heating, is forecast 263 gigawatt hour per day higher at 2667 GWh/d on the day, LSEG data shows.
EU gas storage sites were last 28.48% full, compared with around 33.8% at the same time last year, Gas Infrastructure Europe data showed.
In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 was down 0.63 euro at 68.63 euros a metric ton.
