Prices rangebound on healthy storage, milder weather

LONDON, March 27 - Dutch and British wholesale gas prices were mixed on Wednesday morning, trading rangebound, as strong storage inventories and milder weather outweighed concerns over geopolitical tensions and lower liquefied natural gas (LNG) send-out.

The benchmark front-month contract at the Dutch TTF hub edged down by 0.35 euro to 27.20 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 1013 GMT, while the May contract was 0.30 euro lower at 27.40 euros/MWh, LSEG data showed.

The day-ahead contract inched up by 0.30 euros to 27.35 EUR/MWh.

In Britain, the front-month contract was 0.76 pence higher at 69.90 pence/therm and the day-ahead contract rose by 0.25 pence to 68.60 pence/therm.

"We formally reach the end of the winter delivery period in the coming days and the next winter contract becomes the front season. We end the season with an impressive level of gas held across EU storage sites, almost 60%, which is likely to be the highest value for some time and just about beat the 2020 value," consultancy Auxilione said.

Europe's gas stores are currently 59.2% full, the latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed.

Europe is forecast to experience milder weather from April 3 onwards, with temperatures expected well above the seasonal norm, LSEG data showed.

Meanwhile, total north-west Europe LNG send-out is expected today at 1,884 gigawatt hours per day (GWh/d), down around 150 GWh/d from Tuesday.

Prices rose earlier this week amid geopolitical concerns after a Russian attack on Ukrainian gas storage facilities but those appear to have faded.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract was down 0.58 euro at 64.42 euros a metric ton. (Reporting by Marwa Rashad; Editing by Nina Chestney)