+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
U.K. Gas Rises With Cold Weather; Day-Ahead Electricity Falls
2010-10-25 16:04:52.964 GMT
By Ben Farey
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. natural-gas contracts rose as
forecasts of freezing weather increased demand for heating fuel.
Day-ahead electricity prices declined as the grid manager
predicted lower power consumption tomorrow.
Demand for gas in the 24 hours through 6 a.m. tomorrow is
forecast at 347 million cubic meters, 61 million more than
normal for the time of year, according to National Grid Plc
data. The nation's pipelines will hold 335 million cubic meters
of gas at that time. That's 7 million less than at the start of
today. Power demand for Oct. 26 is forecast to peak at 51,252
megawatts tomorrow, 0.7 percent less than today.
Gas for today gained 0.95 pence, or 2 percent, to 48.65
pence a therm as of 4:40 p.m. local time, according to broker
data compiled by Bloomberg. That's equal to $7.66 a million
British thermal units. A therm is 100,000 Btus. Next-month gas
rose 1.2 percent to 47.63 pence a therm. U.K. baseload power for
the next working day fell 15 pence, or 0.3 percent, to 44.35
pounds a megawatt-hour. Baseload is delivered around the clock.
Temperatures in London may fall to minus 1 degree Celsius
(30 Fahrenheit) today from yesterday's low of 2 degrees,
according to forecaster CustomWeather Inc.
Gas, used to heat about 80 percent of U.K.'s homes, was
pumped from the Rough, Hornsea and Aldbrough storage sites. The
three facilities added a total of about 42.5 million cubic
meters a day to overall supply, grid data show. Imports from
Norway via the Langeled pipeline reached 58 million cubic meters
a day, National Grid data show. That's the biggest single source
of gas.
For Related News and Information:
Top Gas Story Page: TGAS <GO>
U.K. Gas Prices: UGAS <GO>
U.K. Power Prices: ELEU <GO>
--Editors: Rob Verdonck, Mike Anderson
To contact the reporters on this story:
Ben Farey in London at +44-20-7673-2369 or
bfarey@bloomberg.net;
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss on +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
