Prices have continued to tick upwards last week thanks to the arrival of cold weather and subdued wind generation, both of which have led to gas storage being withdrawn.

Weather forecasts for the near-term future have also turned colder and concerns over the supply of Russian gas are putting continued upward pressure on prices.

The only bearish driver now is the concern over the new Omicron Covid variant and the potential for this to lead to restrictions and a drop-in economic activity that would reduce energy demand. While this has already caused a significant drop in oil prices it has only prevented further gains for UK gas and power so far.

Temperatures are not expected to get back to seasonal norm until mid-December though wind speeds should return to normal this week and there remains a healthy schedule of LNG cargoes heading to the UK.