LONDON: UK wholesale natural gas prices climbed in early trade as the UK gas system was undersupplied during the morning with bullish sentiment remaining from the recent H1 2015 production cap at the Dutch Groningen gas field and with Bacton BBL flows dropping heavily since the announcement.
The within-day NBP gas contract was seen trading at 52.50 pence/therm at 11:00 am London time, up 1.30 p/th from Tuesday’s assessment, with day-ahead dealt at 52.60 p/th after having been seen trading down at 51.25 p/th early on compared to the previous close of 50.25 p/th.
National Grid 10:00 am demand forecasts were 321 million cubic meters, largely unchanged from levels so far this week, with physical flows seen 28 million cu m lower at 293 million cu m.
Market sentiment remains bullish following the announcement late Monday of a 16.5 Bcm production cap at Groningen for the first six months of this year, as UK gas imports from the Netherlands have since dropped.
