UK GAS-British gas prices fall as temperature rise eases demand

Prompt British wholesale gas prices fell on Monday, with rising temperatures lowering demand and supply expected to remain high.

* The within-day contract was down 1.00 pence at 38.20 p/therm by 1020 GMT.

* The day-ahead contract was down 0.70 pence at 38.40 p/therm.

* UK gas system was 18.4 million cubic metres (mcm) oversupplied, with demand forecast at 329.3 mcm and supply at 347.7 mcm, National Grid data showed.

* The oversupply was caused by weakening residential demand, with temperatures forecast to rise to 4 degrees on Wednesday from Tuesday’s 3.8 degrees. They are forecast to reach almost 7 degrees at the weekend.

* Gas-for-power demand was expected to drop on Wednesday, with wind generation expected at 8 Gigawatts (GW), up from 6.2 GW on Tuesday, Elexon data showed.

* Supply from Norway, the UK Continental Shelf and liquefied natural gas (LNG) sendout was largely stable on Tuesday.

* A total of 10 LNG tankers are expected at UK terminals between Dec. 4-15.

* Planned maintenance is expected to take place at Norway’s Visund field on Dec. 4, but it will mainly impact flows to the continent, Refinitiv analysts said.

* The ongoing outage cutting flows into UK’s Bacton SEAL terminal from Elgin Franklin field was extended to end on Dec. 6 from Dec. 3, National Grid data showed.

* Further out, the January gas contract fell 0.13 p to 41.25 p/therm, while the summer 2020 contract dropped 0.20 p to 36.75 p/therm.

* The day-ahead gas price at the Dutch TTF hub was down 0.10 euro at 15.33 euros per megawatt hour.

* The benchmark Dec-19 EU carbon contract was up 0.16 euro at 24.49 euros per tonne.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Ekaterina Kravtsova; Editing by Alexander Smith)