Spot UK wholesale natural gas prices were steady in early Wednesday trade with the UK gas system again marginally undersupplied, while the NBP prompt extended the previous session's fall on weak oil.
National Grid 10 am (0900 GMT) demand forecasts for Wednesday were 195 million cu m -- physical flows were behind, at 190 million cu m/d.
Spot prices were seen slightly higher on the open, with within-day and day-ahead seen trading at 34.10 pence/therm and 34.20 p/th, respectively.
Norwegian gas flows were steady on the day at 55 million cu m/d, split between Easington and St. Fergus at 12 million cu m/d and 43 million cu m/d, respectively, according to Norwegian gas operator Gassco.
Flows were unaffected by the unplanned Gullfaks outage with a 6.3 million cu m/d reduction due to "process problems", Gassco said.
UK indigenous gas production was set to be boosted by the return to full capacity of the North Morecambe sub-terminal late Tuesday, with flows via Barrow recovering after having been zero.
Regasification from the South Hook LNG terminal continued to be high with rates seen at 36 million cu m/d Wednesday morning ahead of Qatari deliveries at the facility.
Demand for UK gas for exports has increased further with IUK 10 am export nominations at 48 million cu m with the ZEE spot price at a premium to the NBP equivalent.
The front-month August NBP contract extended the previous session's fall in early trade, after having been dealt at 34.675 p/th.
Q1 2017 and Summer 2017 were seen trading at 45.40 p/th and 41.10 p/th, respectively.
