UK GAS-Day-ahead prices touch fresh 3-year high on outages, weak nuclear power

LONDON, July 29 (Reuters) - Day-ahead British wholesale gas
prices rose to a fresh three-year high on Thursday morning as
lower supply due to outages coincided with strong demand from
gas-fired power plants amid low output from the country’s
nuclear plants.

* The day-ahead contract was up 1.95 pence at
102.95
p/therm by 0853 GMT, having earlier hit 104.00 p/therm, its
highest level since March 2018.

* “Unplanned and planned works continue to impact UK
continental
shelf domestic production. Supported by weak nuclear output with
over 4.2 gigawatts of capacity unavailable,” analysts at
Refinitiv said in a daily research note.

* European gas prices have risen to record highs this
summer,
driven by factors ranging from low inventories and outages to an
Asian buying spree.

* Flows through the Bacton Seal gas terminal were curbed by
8.9
million cubic metres (mcm)/ day due to an unplanned outage on
Wednesday, Total EP said in a market update

* Seven of Britain’s 13 operating nuclear units are
currently
offline due to either planned or unplanned outages, data from
operator EDF shows.

* Analysts at Refinitiv forecast gas demand from power
stations at
41 mcm for the day-ahead, up 15 mcm on the previous forecast.

* A lack of arrivals of liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers
also
helped to buoy curve contracts, with no tankers currently
scheduled to arrive in Britain.

* The August 2021 rose 0.45 p to 101.45
p/therm.

* The Winter 2021 contract rose 7.75 p/therm to
a
record high 102.50 p/therm.

* The day-ahead gas price at the Dutch TTF hub
was up
0.78 euro at 40.32 per megawatt hour.

* The benchmark Dec-21 EU carbon contract was up
0.50
euro at 54.34 euros per tonne.

* The benchmark Dec-21 British carbon contract was
up
0.34 pounds at 43.75 pounds per tonne.
(Reporting By Susanna Twidale)