Prices hold amid strong imports from Norway

Gas prices held relatively firm at the NBP on Thursday, with most near-dated contracts settling within a 0.5p/th (0.017p/kWh) range of their previous closing prices.

Strong Norwegian flows perhaps helped to ease immediate supply concerns. Offshore operator Gassco confirmed that unplanned maintenance at the Aasta Hansteen facility, due to a compressor failure, was resolved yesterday, restoring around 10 mcm/d of volumes which had previously been offline.

On the power side, baseload prices also held relatively stable with contracts across the curve settling within a 1 £/MWh margin of their previous settlements.

Following a surge in wind-output in the previous session a sharp decline may have provided support to near-dated contracts.

According to National Gas, wind-output saw a day-on-day decline of more than 35%, which in turn lifted reliance on CCGT generation by a similar 35% when compared to the same period.

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Price commentary courtesy of Crown Gas and Power