Spot gas prices on the UK's NBP trading hub were moving around the 76.00 pence/therm mark Thursday morning -- around 6 p higher than the end of February -- as cooler than normal temperatures are expected next week and medium-range storage facilities top up stocks in preparation.
At 1200 GMT, the within-day gas contract was valued at 76.25 p/th, down by 0.25 p/th, and day-ahead gas gained 0.85 p/th at 75.85 p/th.
National Grid had forecast demand at 1100 GMT pegged at 309 million cubic meters, which was 23 million cu m above seasonal norms with extra demand coming from storage injections, a market analyst said.
"Nominations suggest that 28 million cu m will be placed back into storage today, ahead of the anticipated drop in temperatures," a market analyst said.
The system was on the short side throughout the morning by around 10-15 million cu m despite the Norwegian Langeled pipeline continuing at full capacity rates of around 70 million cu m/d, after supply disruptions earlier in the week, and very strong sendout from Belgium of 67 million cu m/d.
Temperatures were around 1 to 3 degrees Celsius above averages Thursday but are expected to fall much further by Sunday to as much as 6 C below norms in Manchester and Birmingham.
As a result, prices for working days next week are higher than the spot at 78.15 p/th.
Seasonal contracts also ticked higher Thursday morning, led by the stronger prompt, the analyst said.
Q2 and Summer 13 contracts rose by 0.25p/th and 0.20 p/th at 66.65 p/th and 66.00 p/th, respectively.
Winter 13 gained 0.20 p/th and Summer 14 moved 0.15 p/th higher to 65.65 p/th.
