* LNG send-out drop drives price gains * Storage withdrawals, export curbs may be needed LONDON, Sept 3 (Reuters) - British prompt gas prices rose to nearly a two-month high on Monday due to drops in flows from liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and of North Sea gas, while high export demand magnified the shortage. Gas for Tuesday delivery hit highs not seen since July 7 to 59.70 pence ($0.95) a therm, up 2.70 pence on the day, as shrinking supplies combined with ongoing summer maintenance programmes to boost prices. The biggest drop in supply came from the South Hook import terminal, which cut output amid fears of reduced deliveries after top LNG exporter Qatar announced unplanned maintenance on one of its production trains last week. Britain's gas market was undersupplied by 38 million cubic metres/day even though demand was running about 39 percent below average at 151 mcm/day. The terminal, which relies on Qatari LNG imports, cut send-outs from 51 mcm/day last week to just 12 mcm/day over the weekend. South Hook output rose slightly to 14 mcm/day on Monday morning. "The reason for the sudden drop is not clear but could be related to the scheduled Qatari liquefaction maintenance in September and the change of month," analysts at Point Carbon said. Subdued LNG send-outs throughout September "will be very bullish for European prompt prices", Point Carbon said. Britain was nominated to export 28 mcm/day to Belgium during the course of the day, higher than last week, but Point Carbon analysts expected that figure to be adjusted downward to compensate for low LNG send-outs. Norway boosted exports to Britain after pipeline maintenance disabled an export route to Belgium. Norway's Langeled pumped 29 mcm/day to the UK. Total's St Fergus beach terminal shut down for unplanned maintenance last week and will be offline until Sept. 25 as the outage merges with scheduled maintenance starting on Tuesday. New front-month October rose 1.40 pence to 60.40 pence. Further forward, the benchmark winter gas contract was pulled up by strong prompt gas prices despite weaker sentiment in crude oil markets. Winter gas rose more than a penny t0 67.20 pence on the day.

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