LONDON: British wholesale gas prices rose on Monday morning as falling wind output boosted demand and a halt to flows from a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal created an undersupplied system.
Day-ahead gas 0.85 pence higher at 49.50 pence per therm at 0905 GMT.
Within-day gas rose by 1.40 pence to 50 p/therm.
The system was undersupplied by 18.7 million cubic metres/day (mcm), with demand forecast at 257.5 mcm/day and flows at 238.8 mcm/day, according to National Grid data.
Demand from gas-fired power stations should increase to 63 mcm/day from 42 mcm/day last Friday due to falling wind power output, Thomson Reuters analysts said.
LNG send-out from the Isle of Grain terminal - set to receive a cargo from Trinidad on Monday - dropped to zero from around 13 mcm/day overnight, tightening supplies.
"The context is rather mixed - there is strong demand from (gas-fired power plants) this morning to compensate for low wind power production but the outlook for next week is rather mild," a senior analyst at a major European energy company said.
"The LNG supply outlook is really uncertain and sendouts could drop quickly if there is not a new cargo delivery in the coming days," he said.
The start of Norway's summer gas field maintenance programme from Tuesday, coupled with strong coal prices and record low stored gas reserves, are also helping support prices, he added.
Dutch day-ahead gas prices edged up to 18.83 euros per megawatt hour.
The benchmark Dec-18 EU carbon contract inched up by 0.05 euro to 13.04 euros a tonne
Thomson Reuters analyst view: http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageid=united-kingdom-gas.
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