UK GAS-Prices fall on oversupply, weaker demand from power stations

LONDON, March 15 (Reuters) - British wholesale gas prices
fell on Monday morning as strong supply, and expectations of
lower demand from the country's power stations, dented prices.

* The within-day contract was down 0.75 pence
at
47.00 p/therm by 0952 GMT.

* The day-ahead contract was down 0.55 p at
47.00
p/therm.

* Traders said demand for gas-for-power was weaker, while
several
liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers are expected to arrive this
month, boosting supply.

* Peak wind power generation is forecast at 10.4 gigawatts
(GW) on
Monday, falling to 9.4 GW on Tuesday, Elexon data showed.

* The Heysham 1-2 nuclear unit, with a capacity of around
580
megaawatts is also expected come back on line on Monday evening
following an outage.

* Analysts at Refinitiv forecast demand for gas-for-power at
64
million cubic metres (mcm) for Monday, falling to 53 mcm on
Tuesday.

* The forecasts were 4 mcm and 16 mcm lower respectively
than
previous expectations.

* “LNG send-out is strong and brisk regasification can
continue
with three new caroges confirmed at UK terminals,” the Refinitiv
analysts said in a daily research note.

* A total of eleven LNG tankers are now scheduled to arrive
at
British LNG terminals to the end of March.

* Britain’s gas system was over-supplied, with demand
forecast at
272.8 mcm and flows at 286 mcm/day, National Grid data showed.

* The April contract was flat at 47.50 p/therm.

* The day-ahead gas price at the Dutch TTF hub
was
flat at 18.65 euros per megawatt hour.

* The benchmark Dec-21 EU carbon contract was up
0.03
euro at 42.88 euros per tonne.
(Reporting By Susanna Twidale; editing by Nina Chestney)

National Grid