Prices rise on increased demand for power, weaker supply

LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - British and Dutch wholesale gas prices rose on Thursday morning as demand from power stations ramped up amid weaker wind power output and as an extension at Norwegian gas infrastructure curbed supply.

The front-month Dutch contract rose by 2.30 euro to 30.00 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0837 GMT, while the Dutch day-ahead contract rose by 1.92 euros to 28.50 euros/MWh, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

The British day-ahead price was 0.80 pence higher at 70.00 pence per therm.

“Total Norwegian export nominations are decreasing by 7 million cubic metres/day (mcm) to 306 mcm/day. The one-day outage at Troll (field) has been extended by a day and appears to impact flows more significantly today,” Refinitiv analyst Ulrich Weber said in a daily research note.

Peak wind power in Britain was forecast at 10.4 gigawatts (GW) on Thursday, dropping to 7.2 GW on Friday, out of total metered capacity of 23 GW, Elexon data showed.

Refinitiv data showed British gas-for-power demand was forecast to rise by 24 mcm on Friday.

Gas supply from Russia to Europe via Ukraine remained stable.

Russia's Gazprom said it would ship 42.4 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Thursday, the same volume as on Wednesday.

In the European carbon market, the benchmark contract CFI2Zc1 rose by 1.20 euro to 84.65 euros a tonne.