BLBG:U.K. Within-Day Natural Gas Climbs to One-Month High on Weather
U.K. natural gas for same-day delivery rose for the fourth consecutive day, reaching the highest price in more than a month as freezing weather boosted demand for the heating fuel.
Within-day gas added as much as 4.8 percent, according to broker data compiled by Bloomberg. Demand in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. tomorrow was predicted at 366 million cubic meters, the most since Feb. 13 and above the seasonal normal of 303 million, National Grid Plc (NG/) data show.
Gas for today gained 3.25 pence to 72.20 pence a therm at 9:52 a.m. London time. Next-month gas advanced 0.7 percent to 67.35 pence a therm. That’s equivalent to $10.29 per million British thermal units and compares with $3.25 per million Btu of front-month U.S. gas.
The average temperature in the U.K. fell to minus 2.2 degrees Celsius (28 Fahrenheit) today, according to MetraWeather data on Bloomberg using the ECMWF model. The mean temperature for the balance of the day will be a 0.9 degrees versus a seasonal normal of 5.7 degrees, data showed.
System flows reached 380 million cubic meters a day, the most since Feb. 14, grid data show. The delivery system will contain 330 million cubic meters of gas at 6 a.m. tomorrow, down from 345 million 24 hours earlier, the data show.
Gas accounted for 36 percent of U.K. power production at 9:15 a.m., grid data show. Coal generated 39 percent, nuclear 16 percent and wind 3.2 percent.
Wind generation will peak at 1,335 megawatts tomorrow after reaching 2,087 today, Bloomberg calculations show. It reached a record 5,082 megawatts Feb. 3, grid data show.
Electricity for the next working day rose 4.4 percent to 53.50 pounds a megawatt-hour, broker data show.
To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Brown in London at mbrown42@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lars Paulsson at lpaulsson@bloomberg.net
