Gas prices up today amid North Sea outages

Gas prices resumed their upward trajectory on Friday, supported by North Sea outages and tumbling LNG supply.

The biggest moves were posted at the front-end, with the new April 24 front-month contract surging circa 0.09p/kWh above its previous close, likely in response to a tightening supply outlook.

Slightly constrained Norwegian output also didn’t help the situation. Data from offshore operator Gassco shows that 8mcm/day was taken offline by an unplanned outage at Norway’s Troll field due to process problems, this coincided with planned maintenance totaling 6.3mcm at the British St Fergus import terminal, although the outage at Troll appears to have been resolved this morning.

Declining LNG supply likely added further pressure. Data from National Gas shows that LNG send-out (within session) fell by more than 20% and dropped to the lowest levels seen so far this year.

Furthermore, the latest shipping signals indicate that just 2 laden vessels are set to arrive at British terminals across the next 14 days.

Prices have eased slightly this morning, with the Summer 24 front-season contract currently being offered circa 0.05p/kWh below its previous settlement, although many contracts have yet to trade at time of writing.

In terms of UK’s current electricity demand, if we check the latest half hourly period at the time of writing (09:30 – 10:00), electricity demand is currently 37.19 GW’s in the UK.

In terms of the generation mix, gas is currently generating 15.70 GW’s (39.89%) of the UK’s electricity. Wind power is only generating 5.09 GW’s (12.93%) of the UK’s total electricity this morning.

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