UK wholesale natural gas prices were mixed at the open Monday with near- term contracts supported by a short gas system, with the NBP curve extending the falls from the previous trading session.
National Grid 10:00 am figures put physical flows of 245 million cu m/d well below Monday demand forecasts of 272 million cu m, leaving the system short by 27 million cu m as a result.
Within-day and day-ahead were seen trading at 32.60 pence/therm and 32.70 p/th respectively Monday morning in comparison to the previous assessments of 32.10 p/th and 32.275 p/th.
Norwegian gas flows into the UK were running at 98 million cu m/d according to Norwegian gas operator Gassco, split between Easington and St. Fergus at 58 million cu m/d and 40 million cu m/d respectively.
UK gas production nominations for Monday were 104 million cu m according to Eclipse Energy, an analytics unit of Platts.
Sendout from the South Hook LNG terminal was running at 24 million cu m/d Monday morning after having dropped overnight, with both Dragon and Isle of Grain inactive.
The Al Kharaitiyat and the Rasheeda Qatari LNG tankers are possible arrivals at South Hook later in the month, with an Algerian tanker due to berth at Isle of Grain.
Imports from the Netherlands into the Bacton terminal through the BBL pipeline were steady at 18 million cu m/d Monday morning, steady with December levels.
Exports to Belgium through the Interconnector pipeline were nominated at a mere 5 million cu m according to IUK 10:00 am figures, well below the December average of 18 million cu m/d, and averaged 2 million cu m/d during the first three days of 2016.
Storage facilities were not withdrawing gas Monday morning despite the short system, but were nominated to withdraw 9 million cu m during the course of Monday's gas day according to Eclipse.
UK gas storage facilities ended Saturday's gas day with 4.209 Bcm in stock, with Rough holding 2.879 Bcm, Grid data showed.
Longer-term NBP contracts shrugged off the higher spot market and fell at the open -- front-month February was dealt at 32.90 p/th in early exchanges, a 0.25 p/th discount to the previous assessment.
March 16 changed hands at 32.10 p/th, with Winter 16 seen trading at 34.80 p/th.
