LONDON: Prompt natural gas prices in Britain rose on Thursday morning as a dip in supplies from from Norway left the system undersupplied.
Prices for within-day delivery were trading at 43.90 pence per therm at 0853 GMT, up 0.70 pence since their last settlement. Prices for delivery on Friday were also up 0.70 pence at 43.70 pence per therm.
Traders said demand for gas from power generators is high due to outages at nuclear plants in Britain and as lighting demand rises on a reduction of daylight hours in the country due to seasonal changes.
With supply flows at about 158.6 million cubic metres (mcm) per day on Thursday and demand expected to be about 165.9 mcm, the system was 7.3 mcm undersupplied, National Grid data showed.
Norwegian imports via Langeled were slightly down to 15 mcm/day from 19 mcm/day, analysts at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon said.
Britain has six nuclear reactors offline with a combined capacity of around 3.4 gigawatts.
Further along the curve, the Winter 2014-2015 gas contract rose 0.55 pence to 59.30 pence per therm.
Traders said the curve continues to be supported by fears over disruptions to European gas supplies due to the ongoing tension between Russia and Ukraine.
"Contracts further out on the curve continue to take direction from headlines, with additional support from the bullish prompt," a gas trader said.
Ukraine warned Europe on Wednesday that Russia could cut off gas to the continent this winter. Moscow said, however, the supply of gas would continue regardless of politics.
Russia supplies nearly a third of Europe's gas needs.
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