LONDON, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Benchmark European and British
wholesale gas prices soared to record highs on Tuesday as
Russian gas shipments to Germany through a major transit
pipeline reversed direction and colder weather increased demand.
* The British gas contract for day-ahead delivery
was
up 24 pence at 4.00 pounds per therm by 0933 GMT, marking a new
record.
* The benchmark Dutch front-month contract was
up 10
euros at 157.40euros/MWh, having touched a record 160.75 euros.
* The British front-month contract was up 23.25
pence
at 3.96 p/therm, having hit a record 4.00 pounds/therm earlier
on Tuesday.
* Westward flows through the Yamal Russia-Europe pipeline
had been
falling since Saturday but the reversal of direction, sending
flows away from Germany, stoked supply fears and pushed
contracts to record highs, traders said.
* On Tuesday flows at the Yamal Mallnow metering point on
the
German-Polish border turned eastwards, operator Gascade said. It
had earlier logged requests for eastward flows at an hourly
volume of more than 1,250,000 kilowatt hours (kWh/h) for the
rest of Tuesday.
* “It's very painful ... the only respite we can hope for is
wind
(power), nuclear to actually come back as planned and not keep
pushing back a week or two,” one gas trader said.
* Gas demand from power stations has risen to replace
electricity
generation lost from several French nuclear reactors currently
offline for maintenance or shut down because of technical
problems.
* Temperatures are also poised to fall over the next few
days,
increasing demand for gas for heating.
* Analysts at Refinitiv forecast British local distribution
zone
(LDZ) demand, which is primarily used for heating, at 240million
cubic metres (mcm)/day for Tuesday and 261 mcm/d for Wednesday.
* The forecasts were up by 18 mcm and 24 mcm respectively
from
previous expectations.
* The European benchmark December 2021 emission allowance
(EUA)
contract was up 2.06 euros at 82.15 euros a tonne.
(Reporting by Susanna Twidale
Editing by David Goodman
)