Low demand helps offset unplanned Norwegian pipeline maintenance

Gas prices were relatively unchanged on Friday, with unseasonably low demand helping to offset unplanned Norwegian maintenance.

Key contracts across the curve continued to trade within a narrow range, with the March-24 front-month contract posting losses of less than 0.034p/kWh when compared to its previous settlement.

Unseasonably low gas demand likely applied pressure to near-dated contracts, with data from National Gas showing that actual demand was 73mcm below the seasonal average, likely due to mild temperatures. This helped to propel the British system into oversupply which was 10mcm long at 15:00 London time.

However, an unscheduled outage at the Norwegian Kollsnes facility likely limited any substantial losses at the front-end. According to offshore operator Gassco, the outage which was believed to have been resolved was reinstated Friday afternoon, reducing available volumes by 23mcm/day.

This morning gas prices have opened lower with the Summer-24 front-season contract last trading circa 0.034p/kWh below its previous closing price, although many contracts are yet to trade at time of writing.

In terms of electricity demand, if we check the latest half hourly period at the time of writing (12:00 – 12:30), electricity demand is currently 38.56 GW’s in the UK.

44.84% (17.58 GW’s) of the UK’s total electricity is being generated from wind turbines at the moment, with gas being used to generate only 6.05 GW’s (15.44%).

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