The amount of natural gas held in UK short- and medium-range gas storage facilities combined rose to fresh record highs on Monday as capacity holders injected gas over the Christmas period, data from the National Grid showed Tuesday.
At the end of Sunday's gas day, gas stocks in UK SRS, MRS facilities combined was 1.338 Bcm, a record high, with injections at the end of 2015 and during the first three days of 2016.
Capacity holders were able to inject gas due to a combination of mild temperatures for the time of year allied to NBP spot contracts trading at discounts to the January and February contracts, encouraging injections.
As a result, SRS, MRS stocks began Monday 92 million cu m higher than the stocks held at the same time last year and 380 million cu m above the five- year average.
Withdrawals can be expected in the short term, with colder temperatures expected to move over the UK in the second week of January according to the UK's Met Office, with the working-days-next-week and balance-of-month NBP contracts seen trading above 34 pence/therm Tuesday with the February 16 contract at a discount to the prompt, dealt at 33.70 p/th.
Withdrawals from Rough were running at the maximum 41 million cu m/d capacity Tuesday morning as capacity holders take advantage of higher prompt pricing compared with the near curve.
As a result of the steep SRS, MRS stock build over the Christmas period in addition to mild builds in stock levels at the UK's only long-range gas storage facility, Rough, total UK gas stocks are close to record highs for the time of year.
At the beginning of Monday's gas day, total UK gas stocks stood at 4.217 Bcm, 466 million cu m higher than the five-year average and a mere 59 million cu m shy of the record for the time of year from 2015.
