BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 9. BMI, a Fitch Solutions company, has maintained its forecast for TTF to average EUR40/MWh and NBP GBp100/therm, Trend reports.
According to the company, recent attacks on Russian refining and crude infrastructure, along with retaliatory strikes on natural gas infrastructure in Western Ukraine, caused natural gas prices to rise in the past week. Dutch TTF prices increased by 3.1% to EUR27.5/MWh, and UK NBP prices went up by 0.9% to GBp69/therm.
The risk of lowering these forecasts is increasing as spring temperatures rise and natural gas storage levels remain high, BMI noted.
Meanwhile, as per BMI's report, European natural gas storage is set to finish the heating season on April 1 at 58 percent full, which is nearly 3 percent higher than last year and over 16 percent more than the average of the past five years.
Warmer weather in Western Europe throughout winter led to less heating and power usage, while slow industrial activity also reduced demand, the company explained. Despite some brief interruptions in supply, both pipeline and LNG imports remained strong, reducing the need to use up stored gas. This situation caused European natural gas prices to drop significantly compared to last year.