EUROPE GAS-Prices rise ahead of Australian LNG strikes

LONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Dutch and British wholesale gas rose slightly on Wednesday morning as workers at Chevron's two liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in Australia prepared for two weeks of 24-hour strikes from Thursday.

The Dutch October contract was up by 0.35 euro at 35.53 euros per megawatt hour by 0831 GMT, while the UK day-ahead price was 1.92 pence higher at 90.00 pence per therm, according to LSEG Eikon data.

Workers at the Gorgon and Wheatstone LNG facilities started work stoppages last Friday.

The dispute between Chevron and workers will be heard by Australia's industrial relations tribunal on Sept. 22.

Chevron has asked Australia's Fair Work Commission to intervene in its dispute with workers, banking on new laws that came into effect in June and which empower the industrial arbitrator to force parties into an agreement they themselves are unable to make.

"If supply from Australia is reduced, Asian buyers could turn to other LNG suppliers, competing with Europe, for the duration of strikes. This is spurring temporary spot price volatility in the European gas market," Fitch Ratings said in a report.

However, the strikes come during a period of lower demand in Europe, while high gas storage levels and stable flows of LNG are curbing price rise.

Europe's gas storage sites are 93.8% full, according to latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

LSEG gas analyst Timothy Crump said Norway's Troll is expected back tomorrow after outage and could indicate the start of the end of the yearly maintenance period.

Total Norwegian export nominations are up 8 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) at 145 mcm/d.

In Britain, Crump said the supply picture has improved with return of 10 mcm/d sendout from Dragon which has been mute since the beginning of June.

Send-out from other UK LNG terminals remains steady.

Peak wind generation in Britain is forecast at around 9.8 gigawatts (GW) on Wednesday, rising to 10.9 GW on Thursday, out of a total metered capacity of around 22 GW, Elexon data showed.

Meanwhile, feedgas flows to Freeport LNG, the second-largest U.S. liquefied natural gas exporter remained depressed for the fifth day in a row, LSEG data showed.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract was up by 0.44 euros at 81.52 euros a tonne.

(Reporting by Marwa Rashad; Editing by Nina Chestney)