LONDON: UK wholesale natural gas prices gave up some of the gains of the first two trading sessions of 2016 as a supply boost made the UK gas system comfortably supplied, causing the NBP curve to ease on the open before recovering.
Losses on the spot were nonetheless capped with a cold snap still expected to arrive next week, limiting selling interest in prompt and curve NBP contracts.
National Grid 10:00 am figures showed the UK gas system comfortable with supply at 300 million cu m/d against demand forecasts for Thursday of 278 million cu m.
The oversupply caused spot NBP contracts to shed value on the open, with within-day and day-ahead trading at 33.95 pence/therm and 34.175 p/th respectively Thursday morning.
Norwegian gas imports into the UK were robust Thursday morning, with Norwegian gas operator Gassco reporting flow rates of 111 million cu m/d, split between Easington and St. Fergus at 71 million cu m/d and 40 million cu m/d respectively.
UK gas production nominations for Thursday were lower than earlier in the month, nominated at 94 million cu m, according to Eclipse Energy, an analytics unit of Platts. Sendout from the South Hook LNG terminal remains broadly unchanged on the day, with sendout rates of 27 million cu m/d Thursday morning.
The Al Kharaitiyat remains en route to South Hook — expected to berth Thursday — but no other Qatari LNG tankers are confirmed to arrive in the UK in the short term. BBL pipeline imports from the Netherlands were again unchanged day on day at 18 million cu m/d.
Storage withdrawals from Rough continue at full capacity, with the Stublach medium-range facility again used overnight to balance.
Flows between the UK and Belgium through the Interconnector were expected to be minimal Thursday with low nominations seen with the UK spot at a solid premium to the ZEE equivalent.
Front-month February opened lower Thursday at 34 p/th, but rose steadily in early trade and dealt at 34.55 p/th just before 11 am, before rallying further to 35 p/th.
