Gas prices react to low demand forecast
Gas prices traded within a narrow range on Friday, amid mostly unchanged fundamentals.
Lateral movement was observed across the curve, with most near-curve contracts moving by no more than 0.007p/kWh when compared to their previous close.
Weak gas demand continued to help keep prices low with data from National Gas showing that demand totalled 171mcm on Friday, down 4% when compared to the previous gas day.
The 14-day forecast shows that British demand will remain below seasonal norms until at least 2nd June, coinciding with forecasts of unseasonably mild weather over the same period.
Extensive Norwegian maintenance will likely be the key focus for European gas hubs this week, with offline capacity set to briefly reach 176.91mcm/d on Tuesday before retreating back down to 54.60mcm/d on Friday 24th.
Gas prices have opened in down this morning, with the Winter 24 front-season contract currently being offered 0.07p/kWh below its previous settlement, at time of writing.
The UK is currently consuming 29.51 GW’s of electricity (10:00 – 10:30).
The UK’s onshore and offshore wind turbines are currently generating 3.93 GW’s (12.30%) of the UK’s total electricity with solar generation at 6.41 GW’s (20.09%) and gas for power generating 8.31 GW’s (26.02%) of the total.
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