Prices jump as Norway goes offline amid forecast demand increases
The NBP resumed its upward trajectory on Wednesday amid offline capacity in Norway and forecasts of firm demand across much of the next fortnight.
According to data from Norwegian operator Gassco, the Kristin field joined Gullfaks on unplanned maintenance, taking an additional 5mcm/d offline due to process problems.
Norway-UK flow nominations totalled 80.2mcm, reflecting a steady decrease from 101.9mcm in Monday’s session.
At the same time, the latest run of our 14-day model indicates that demand will flip to above seasonal norms from 26th January, remaining elevated until at least 4th February, further compounding storage concerns across European hubs.
Strong wind power generation weighed on the prompt but failed to filter bearish sentiment into the rest of the curve, with the majority of contracts correcting higher in response to strength on gas and carbon markets.
Elexon data showed that wind output edged even higher on Wednesday, averaging at 19.8GW, 50.3% of the generation mix with gas-fired power constrained at just 6.7GW (16.9%).
Meanwhile, the bulls regained control of both gas and power markets, with a late-afternoon bull-run prompting February and March contracts to once again rocket into the close.
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Price commentary courtesy of Crown Gas and Power 