EU benchmark contract at six-month high on Norwegian unplanned outage

LONDON, June 3 (Reuters) - European gas prices jumped to a six-month high on Monday after Norway's gas exports to Europe fell sharply as a shutdown of the offshore Sleipner hub halted operations at the Nyhamna onshore processing plant.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub rose by 2.57 euros to 37.17 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 1443 GMT, its highest intraday level since early December, while the August contract added 2.35 euros to 37.15 euros/MWh, according to LSEG data.

In the British market, the day-ahead contract was up 8.25 pence at 91.75 pence per therm and the July contract rose by 7.5 pence to 90.50 p/therm.

Norwegian nominations to the continent were down 14 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) with the majority of outages expected to end on Tuesday, LSEG data showed.

Analysts at Engie's EnergyScan said that the longer the outage lasts upward pressure on prices should be expected.

Meanwhile, LNG prices remained close to a six-month high as hot weather in Asia is raising cooling demand and pushing Northeast Asian buyers to focus on supplies for the summer, raising concerns for tighter supplies.

European gas storage facilities were last seen 70.17% full, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data.

"Torn between a comfortable European spot gas balance and some risk factors - in particular on LNG supply - the market had chosen for now to adopt a wait-and-see position," analysts at Engie's EnergyScan said.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract rose by 1.97 euros to 76.1 euros a metric ton. (Reporting by Marwa Rashad; Editing by Varun H K and Susan Fenton)