LONDON: Prompt natural gas prices in Britain dipped on Wednesday following two days of strong gains, as flows resumed at Shell's St Fergus terminal after an unplanned outage on Tuesday.
The day-ahead contract was down 0.2 pence or 0.4 percent at 49.80 pence/therm by 0917 GMT, retreating from a two-week high of 50.45 pence touched in the previous session.
On Tuesday, Shell said some minor unplanned maintenance had impacted flows to St Fergus, but the company failed to flag up the unplanned drop in volume to zero from around 20 mcm/day on Monday evening.
"St Fergus receipts are not yet up to pre-outage levels of 22 million cubic metres. However, some gas has been re-routed through Langeled, mitigating the impact," analysts at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon wrote, referring to the pipeline that connects Britain to Norway.
An appreciating British pound also weighed on prices.
British gas demand, estimated to be 167.9 mcm on Tuesday, was around 8 mcm above forecast supply, according to the National Grid.
Temperatures across the country are also expected to remain above seasonal norms until Sept. 22, meaning likely lower demand for gas.
Front-month prices, however, were 1 percent higher at 51.50 pence/therm on concerns over medium-term disruptions in Russian gas supplies, which accounts for around a third of Europe's total consumption.
"The curve could also be slightly bearish for the prompt depending on how market players view the potential for gas talks next week to lead to a comprehensive agreement between (Ukraine's) Naftogaz and (Russia's) Gazprom," the Point Carbon analysts said.
Russian natural gas flows to the European Union through Slovakia via Ukraine on Wednesday were similar to previous days this week but still down from last week, Slovak pipeline operator Eustream said on Wednesday.
Nominations, or the amount scheduled for entry, totalled 48.9 mcm, Eustream's website showed.
Polish gas pipeline operator Gaz-System said the country was receiving 19-20 mcm of gas per day from its eastern supply route, 20 percent less than gas importer PGNiG had requested.
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