Gas for same- and next-day delivery firmed Wednesday morning on the UK's NBP trading hub following a rise in demand which caused some slight early shortness in the system and the need for medium range storage withdrawals.
Gas for within-day delivery was trading at 67.85 pence/therm at midday in the UK, up by 0.75 p/th from Tuesday's close, and the day-ahead contract rose by 0.40 p/th at 67.60 p/th.
Customer nominations indicated exports out of the UK to Belgium via the Interconnector pipeline would ramp up by 17 million cu m day-on-day to 21 million cu m, to the highest level since May 13.
Co-coinciding with the uptick in exports, National Grid had the day's forecast demand 16 million cu m higher than expected at 225 million cu m. The UK's medium-range storage facility, Holford, helped meet the rise in demand by withdrawing at rates of 18 million cu m/day. Gas flows from Norway to the UK via the Langeled pipeline fell from around 20 million cu m/d before the start of the gas day to just 8 million cu m/d.
Scheduled field maintenance began in Norway on Tuesday with a volume impact of 54 million cu m/d and an expected duration through to July 7, system operator Gassco showed.
Repair work on a heat exchanger also began Tuesday, cutting flows to the UK St Fergus terminal by 10 million cu m/d through to Monday. Additional field maintenance is due to begin Thursday morning, lasting 24-hours at a reduced rate of 30 million cu m/d, Gassco said. The South Hook LNG terminal continued adding strongly to the system at 41 million cu m/d.
Small gains continued to later dated contracts with the June price moving 0.15 p/th higher to 65.55 p/th and Q3 13 pushing up by 0.20 p/th to 66.00 p/th.
Winter 13 and 14 contracts also gained 0.20 p/th at 72.20 and 71.15 p/th, respectively, while the Summer 14 contract was largely unchanged at 64.10 p/th.
Gas demand on Thursday is expected to ease back to 203 million cu m.
