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UK gas up on high exports to Belgium, heating need
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - British gas prices picked up early Wednesday due to high exports to Belgium increasing demand while cold weather was still pushing up gas needs for heating.
Gas for Thursday was 33.50 pence per therm ($4.998 per mmbtu) at 1112 GMT, rising 0.50 pence from day-ahead contracts on Tuesday.
Balance of the week contracts were up 0.35 pence at 32.50 pence, while April increased 0.40 pence to 29.95 pence.
"The prompt is strong as we're a bit short and the Interconnector is exporting out to Belgium. There's still quite high demand so we've got quite high Rough flows to fill that," one gas trader said.
The system was short early on Wednesday, with Rough storage adding 37 million cubic metres (mcm) a day, and medium-range Hornsea and Aldbrough flowing 8 mcm/day and 5 mcm/day overnight to meet demand, the National Grid website showed.
Demand for Wednesday was forecast at 398.7 mcm/day, 71 mcm/day above seasonal norms, and around 20 mcm/day higher than the end of last week.
Prices along the curve were little-changed, with summer 2010 contracts at 29.30 pence and winter 2010 at 40.10 pence.
In the over-the-counter power market, baseload electricity for Thursday was quoted at 35.35 pounds per megawatt hour, losing 10 pence compared with day-ahead contracts on Tuesday.
"Gas is up a bit, but flat from a power perspective. It looks like were heading to a period of warmer weather and lower gas prices," one power trader said.
This story was featured on the Reuters news website.
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