Prices rise on reduced Norwegian imports, low wind generation

09 Jul, 2019

* The within-day contract rose by 1.25 pence to 33.25 pence per therm at 0721 GMT.

* Day-ahead gas prices were 0.80 pence higher at 33.00 pence per therm, while the August contract was up by 0.60 pence at 32.50 p/therm.

* "Outages and low wind and solar are pushing gas up," a gas trader said, explaining the price move.

* Britain's total gas imports from Norway were expected to reach 68 million cubic metres (mcm) on Tuesday, 13 mcm short of Monday's levels.

* Maintenance at Norway's giant Troll field started on Tuesday and is seen lasting until July 19, reducing flows by 9 mcm per day.

* An ongoing outage at the Nyhamna gas processing plant was also reducing flows by 9.2 mcm/day and is expected to last until Aug. 27.

* Peak wind generation is low, forecast at 1.8 gigawatts (GW) on Tuesday and 1.5 GW on Wednesday, out of a total metered capacity of around 12 GW, Elexon data shows.

* Low wind output usually increases gas demand for electricity produced in gas-fired power stations.

* Demand is forecast at 173.3 mcm and flows at 155 mcm/day on Tuesday, leaving the system undersupplied by 18.3 mcm, National Grid data shows.

* In the Dutch gas market, the day-ahead gas price at the TTF hub was 0.35 euros higher at 12.25 euros per megawatt hour.

* Benchmark Dec-19 EU carbon contracts were down 0.12 euros at 26.69 euros a tonne.

Copyright Reuters, 2019

Read Comments