LONDON: Prompt natural gas prices in Britain were flat on Tuesday as an end to outages in Norway and Britain increased supply.
Prices for within-day delivery were trading at 47.50 pence per therm at 0932 GMT, flat with their last settlement.
With supply flows at about 299.1 million cubic metres (mcm) per day on Tuesday and demand expected to be about 287.8 mcm, the system was 11.3 mcm oversupplied, National Grid data showed.
Gas supplies from Norway rose after gas system operator Gassco said production capacity at Norway's Kollsnes gas processing plant would be cut by 10 mcm on Tuesday, down from a previously expected 20 mcm cut.
The facility is ramping up to normal production after the outage, caused by power failures on Saturday as winter storm Nina battered Norway's western coast.
Norwegian exports to Britain via the Langeled pipeline were over 50 mcm/d on Tuesday morning, up from less than 30 mcm/d during parts of the day on Monday, National Grid data showed.
Langeled is Britain's main sub-sea gas import route and has a capacity of around 70 mcm/d.
Britain's Teesside gas processing plant also resumed operation on Tuesday after an unplanned outage on Monday, operator TGGP said.
Prices for delivery on Wednesday rose 0.65 pence to 47.75 pence per therm.
Despite the increased supplies, analysts at Energy Aspects said prompt gas prices were expected to rise this week after recent falls.
"On the upside, the precipitous fall of the last few weeks suggests prices may have been oversold, so a closing of short positions could also provide some upward support to prices above those levels," the analysts said in a research note on Tuesday.
Day-ahead gas prices hit a near four-and-a-half-month low of 44.2 pence per therm on Jan. 7 on the back of oversupply in the market.
Further out on the curve the February contract rose 0.55 pence to 47.95 pence per therm.
In the Netherlands, the day-ahead gas price at the TTF hub was 0.22 euros higher at 19.92 euros per megawatt-hour (MWh).
The benchmark European Union carbon price was up 0.06 euros to 6.86 euros a tonne on ICE Futures Europe.
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