National System Was Well Supplied with Reduced Reliance on Storage Withdrawals

The national system was well supplied Thursday morning with reduced reliance on storage withdrawals but prompt prices on the UK's NBP gas trading hub rose as colder temperatures are expected for Friday and to push into February. 

At 1200 GMT, gas for same-day delivery was valued at 65.65 pence/therm and the day-ahead contract, at 65.70 p/th, was up by 0.55 p/th. 

National Grid had forecast demand pegged at 279 million cubic meters and the system was operating 5 million cu m long after opening with a surplus of as much as 19 million cu m. 

"Langeled imports continue at the 70 million cu m mark, countering lower storage withdrawals from Easington Rough," a market analyst said. 

Rough storage withdrawals fell below 30 million cu m/day for the first time since January 8, at around 23 million cu m/day, data from Platts unit Bentek Energy showed. 

In recent weeks the Rough facility was usually withdrawing at daily rates in excess of 40 million cu m/d. 

Temperatures remained at or above seasonal norms across the country Thursday, with London 3 C above, CustomWeather showed, but by February 2 cities from London to Glasgow are forecast to fall below the long-term averages by around 3 C. 

On the eve of expiry, gas for February delivery traded as low as 65.70 p/th before climbing back to level with the previous session at 66.30 p/th. 

The Q2 13 contract was down by 0.10 p/th to 62.90 p/th. 

Seasonal gas contracts drifted marginally lower, also, mirroring crude futures movements which eased from Wednesday's multi-month highs. 

Summer and Winter 13 gas contracts each traded 0.15 p/th lower at 62.90 and 70.25 p/th, respectively. 

Summer 14 also lost 0.15 p/th at 64.45 p/th. 

At 1130 GMT, the March ICE Brent contract traded 11 cents lower at $114.79/barrel.