LONDON: Wholesale natural gas prices in Britain firmed on Thursday amid lower flows from Norway and an under supplied system.
Day-ahead prices opened higher and hit a four-day peak of 51.0 pence/therm before falling back to 49.95 pence by 0852 GMT, a daily gain of 0.9 percent.
"A heavy drop in Langeled flows is the main bullish driver for the day-ahead contract, and oil is traded slightly up, offering some additional support," analysts at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon wrote.
Front-year Brent crude oil was up 31 cents at $91.69/barrel.
Gas imports via the Langeled pipeline, which connects Norway with Britain, were nominated at 33 million cubic metres (mcm) per day, about half of Wednesday's level of 65 mcm/day, the analysts said.
"However, the bullish side is mitigated by lower LDZ consumption
..In addition, BBL flows are up from yesterday and Dragon started to send out, contributing to higher liquefied natural gas sendouts," the analysts added.
Britain's National Transmission System delivers gas to 13 local distribution zones (LDZs) across the country, which transmit gas to end-users.
Forecast British gas demand for Thursday was seen at 192.2 mcm, above the predicted flow of 183.9 mcm, according to the National Grid.
British gas prices along the rest of the curve were also mostly higher.
Wind speeds were forecast to be high on Thursday, which will likely mean a drop in gas-fired power demand.
Temperatures across Britain are forecast to be in line with seasonal norms near 11 degrees Celsius until Oct.
14, after which they are expected to rise back towards 14-15 degrees.
Meanwhile, day-ahead baseload power prices rose 3.7 percent to 43.20 pounds/MWh.
A sixth British nuclear reactor is due to go offline for a planned outage on Friday, with a further two units scheduled to go offline between Oct. 12 and 17.
That means between Oct. 17 and 20, eight nuclear units with a combined capacity of 4,645 megawatts will be offline, upping dependence on other energy sources including gas and coal.
Dungeness B-21 is scheduled to come back online on Oct. 20, meaning at least seven units will remain offline until the end of the month.
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