UK GAS-Prices rise amid very low wind power output

LONDON: British wholesale gas prices rose on Monday morning amid very low wind power generation and ahead of Norwegian maintenance outages.

The day-ahead contract rose by 1.20 pence to 21.00 pence per therm by 0820 GMT.

The September contract jumped by 2.20 pence to 23.15 p/therm.

"Wind power is still very low which will increase demand for gas from power plants and there are a lot of Norwegian outages coming up," a gas trader said.

Peak wind generation is forecast at 1.6 gigawatts (GW) on Monday and 2.2 GW on Tuesday, out of a total metered capacity of 18 GW, Elexon data shows.

Gas-for-power demand is nominated at 53 million cubic metres (mcm) but Refinitiv analysts forecast 62 mcm.

"Upside risk may arise if gas-for-power nomination reaches our forecast of 62 mcm for today," Refinitiv analysts said.

Several UK nuclear reactors are also currently offline, totalling more than half of UK'S nuclear capacity.

The system is oversupplied by 11 mcm, with demand forecast at 162 mcm and flows at 173 mcm, National Grid data shows.

The main reason for oversupply is higher flows from Norway's Langeled pipeline.

However, several maintenance outages could impact Norwegian production from next week.

The month-ahead gas price at the Dutch TTF hub was 0.15 euro higher at 8.40 euros per megawatt hour.

The benchmark Dec-20 EU carbon contract was 0.28 euro higher at 25.76 euros a tonne.