The latest energy moves from Russia saw the price of future gas contracts open slightly higher this morning in the UK.

That’s according to the daily market report from npower.

Steven Walker, Client Portfolio Manager at the supplier pointed to the higher price of gas for the winter.

He said: “[This was] led by a winter ‘14 contract up around half a penny against last night’s close, after the late rally yesterday afternoon as a result of Russia’s supposed retaliation to the latest round of sanctions hit the headlines.

“There was also news of a five year agreement to expand oil trade with Iran to also develop energy infrastructure with them, pipelines, refineries, things of that nature.”

UK power stations are taking much less gas today than yesterday, at 43 million cubic meters (mcm).

That’s down from a high of almost 50mcm yesterday, according to the market update.

There are several more outages scheduled by power stations including Drax and Little Barford over the month, said Mr Walker, which are likely to offset a “jump” in wind generation next week.