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OSLO, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Britain will align its 24-hour gastrading period, known as the "gas day", with continentalEuropean times from Oct. 1 in a move required by European Unionrules aimed at creating a single energy market.
The gas day in Britain will start at 5 a.m. (0400 GMT) fromOct. 1 and end at 5 a.m. the following day. Britain's gas dayhas started at 6 a.m. since the 1970s.
"A common start and end time to the gas day would makecross-border trading seamless, and should improve hub-to-hublinkage," the EU's energy market supervisor ACER said.
The EU is trying to harmonise the gas network across the28-nation bloc to make gas trading easier between countries.
Britain imports natural gas from Norway via three pipelinesand from the Netherlands via the BBL pipeline. It also eitherimports or exports gas to continental Europe through theInterconnectorUK.
Britain's petroleum industry association, Oil and Gas UK(OGUK), has argued that the time change should be postponed,saying it could cost tens of millions of pounds for companies asthey might need to stop gas production to adjust meteringequipment and to revise commercial contracts.
However, ACER has rejected the calls, saying that the keyindustry players, including Shell and BP, wereconsulted when the new rules were drafted and they did notobject at the time. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo; editing by NinaChestney and David Clarke in London)
