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U.K. Natural Gas Rises Third Day on Lower Supply; Power Gains
2010-07-29 16:21:13.630 GMT
By Ben Farey
July 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. natural-gas contracts rose for
a third day as demand increased and the network manager forecast
lower supply. Power followed gas higher.
Demand for gas in the 24-hour period through 6 a.m.
tomorrow will be 223 million cubic meters, about 1 million more
than normal for the time of year, according to National Grid
Plc. Earlier today demand of 233 was forecast. The nation's
pipelines will hold 334 million cubic meters of gas at 6 a.m.
tomorrow, 2 million less than at the start of today.
Gas for next-month delivery gained 1.88 pence, or 4.6
percent, to 42.6 pence a therm at 5:10 p.m. in London, according
to broker data compiled by Bloomberg. That's equal to $6.64 a
million British thermal units. A therm is 100,000 Btus.
Gas for today was little changed at 43 pence a therm.
Deliveries through the BBL pipeline from the Netherlands
dropped by more than 50 percent to a rate of about 10 million
cubic meters a day. Flows from the Isle of Grain and Dragon LNG
terminals also declined.
Transitgas AG said it expects to reopen its natural-gas
pipeline across Switzerland to Italy Aug. 9 after closing it
last week as thunderstorms increased the risk of damage to the
link from landslides.
"If the meteorological conditions allow, we expect to
restore the natural gas transport on Aug. 9, 2010," Transitgas
said on its website today. The pipeline shut on July 23.
Norwegian Gas
Supply to the U.K. from Norway has increased as gas is
diverted to Britain that would normally be transported to Italy.
Data from Snam Rete Gas SpA, Italy's gas-pipeline operator,
show the Transitgas pipeline imported 59 million cubic meters of
gas into Italy on July 22.
Baseload power for delivery next month gained 1.9 percent
to 39.75 pounds a megawatt-hour. Baseload electricity is
delivered around the clock. Almost half of Britain's power
stations are fuelled with natural gas.
Winter gas, to be delivered in the six months through
March, gained 1.8 pence to 50.8 pence a therm. Baseload power
for winter delivery advanced 1.65 percent to 46.15 pounds a
megawatt-hour.
Bloomberg compiles prices from brokers including ICAP Plc,
GFI Group Inc. and Spectron Group Ltd.
For Related News and Information:
Top Gas story page: TGAS <GO>
U.K. Gas prices: UGAS <GO>
--Editors: Rob Verdonck, Raj Rajendran
To contact the reporter 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
