Prices trade within narrow range amid supply and demand fluctuations
Gas prices at the NBP traded within a narrow range on Wednesday, as improved LNG supply fundamentals and higher storage withdrawals helped to mitigate major Norwegian supply disruptions.
According to data from offshore operator Gassco, multiple external power supply failures saw Norway-UK flows fall 59.4% day-on-day.
A total of 17.6mcm of production capacity was lost at the Troll and Kårstø fields, while the Kollsnes facility lost 31.5mcm of processing capacity.
The most significant impact came from Nyhamna, which saw a 69.8mcm outage. This crucial facility processes gas for export to Great Britain via the Langeled interconnector.
A decisively bullish session for UK baseload power prices. A steep decline in wind power (10.7GW to 4.0GW) when compared to Tuesday bolstered gas-fired (CCGT) power demand, more than doubling its share in the generation stack from 3.5GW to 8.1GW over the same period (data from National Grid).
Adding further upward pressure to the power curve was a sudden 15.9% reduction in Norwegian gas exports to the UK and EU. Given the critical role of gas-fired generation across Europe, this drop likely reinforced bullish momentum in the market, especially along the prompt and near-curve.
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Price commentary courtesy of Crown Gas and Power 