LONDON: Prompt British wholesale gas prices fell on Tuesday morning as strong imports from Norway left the market oversupplied. Within-day gas price down by 1.05 pence to 34.70 pence/therm at 0837 GMT. Day-ahead gas price down by 0.35 pence to 34.75 p/therm. “The system is quite comfortably supplied today,” a trader said, adding that this was putting pressure on prices. British gas system oversupplied by 8.4 million cubic metres (mcm), with demand forecast at 200.4 mcm and flows at 208.8 mcm/day, National Grid data showed. Imports from Norway through the Langeled pipeline were near 50 mcm/day.
Traders said an expected uptick in power generation from the country’s wind farms and higher nuclear power generation curbed demand for gas from gas-fired power plants. EDF Energy’s Hartlepool 2 nuclear reactor came back online on Monday evening after maintenance. Peak wind power generation is forecast at 1.7 gigawatts (GW) on Tuesday rising to 3 GW on Wednesday, National Grid data showed. August gas contract down by 0.45 pence to 34.70 p/therm. Day-ahead gas price at the Dutch TTF hub down by 0.20 euro to 14.83 euros per megawatt hour. Benchmark Dec-17 EU carbon contract up by 0.06 euro to 5.46 euros per tonne.
