UK wholesale natural gas prices fell across the board at the open Monday as milder weather led to gas demand falling, leaving the UK gas system long at the beginning of the week.
National Grid 10:00 am (0900 GMT) forecasts put gas demand for Monday down at 238 million cu m compared to physical flows of 249 million cu m/d, leaving the system long by 11 million cu m.
Due to the weaker demand, within-day and day-ahead were seen trading at 26.65 pence/therm and 27 p/th respectively Monday morning compared with the Friday day-ahead close of 27.60 p/th.
Norwegian gas flows into the UK National Transmission System were running at 94 million cu m/d Monday morning, split between Easington and St. Fergus at 53 million cu m/d and 41 million cu m/d, respectively, according to Norwegian gas operator Gassco.
UK gas production was set to be lower week on week, with maintenance beginning at the North Morecambe sub-terminal with flows reduced by 5 million cu m/d until early April 18.
Regasification from the South Hook LNG terminal picked up at the beginning of Monday's gas day to 40 million cu m/d with both Dragon and Isle of Grain inactive -- several Qatari LNG tankers are en route to Northwest Europe, with South Hook a potential destination.
BBL imports were running at 11 million cu m/d, with IUK 10:00 am export nominations at 21 million cu m/d.
Storage facilities were nominated to inject 8 million cu m Monday according to Eclipse Energy, an analytics unit of Platts.
The weaker prompt has led to losses on the curve with further bearish momentum offered from a stronger pound against the euro.
Front-month May was seen trading at 26.35 p/th, with Q3 16, Winter 16 and Summer 17 changing hands at 26 p/th, 32.525 p/th and 29.55 p/th respectively.
