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UK GAS-Prices fall on oversupply, higher wind output

* System oversupplied by 6.5 mcm/day in early afternoon

* Demand below seasonal norm

* Winter 2015 contract touches record low (Updates throughout)

LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - British wholesale gas prices declined on Wednesday due to oversupply and as higher wind output reduced demand from gas plants.

Gas for immediate delivery fell by 2.84 percent to 42.75 pence per therm at 1217 GMT, while gas for delivery on Thursday was down 1.04 percent at 42.80 p/therm.

Forecast demand for gas was 162.5 million cubic metres (mcm) on Wednesday, below the seasonal norm of 165 mcm/day, National Grid showed.

"Higher levels of wind farm output have seen a reduction in demand for combined-cycle gas turbine generation, pushing total demand below the seasonal normal level," said Marcel Boonaert, head of trading and portfolio management at gas supply company Wingas UK.

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Peak wind generation, however, is forecast to ease on Thursday to 3,680 megawatts (MW) from 5,650 MW on Wednesday, National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) data shows.

Gas supply flows are seen at 169 mcm on Wednesday, meaning the gas system is oversupplied by 6.5 mcm, which has also put pressure on prices in the early afternoon, traders said.

SSE (LSE: SSE.L - news) announced an unplanned outage at its Aldbrough gas storage site from June 17 to 24 which will reduce the amount of gas which can be withdrawn from the facility to zero.

Further along the curve, the winter 2015 contract touched a record low of 47.40 p/therm mid-morning as it fell through a technical support level. However, this triggered some buying and it was trading at 47.50 p/therm by 1217 GMT.

Gas consumption in eight European countries in May decreased by 2.1 percent year-on-year, Societe Generale (Paris: FR0000130809 - news) analysts said on Wednesday.

But gas consumption in Belgium, Denmark, France, Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain has increased by 7.9 percent so far this year compared with 2014.

"We stick to our 7.4 percent y-o-y growth estimate for 2015, which takes into account colder weather than in the abnormally warm 2014," they said.

In the Netherlands, the day-ahead gas price at the TTF hub declined by 0.15 euro to 20.40 euros per megawatt hour.

In Europe's carbon market, the benchmark front-year price was trading at 7.50 euros a tonne on ICE Futures Europe, up 0.05 euro. (Reporting by Nina Chestney; editing by Susan Thomas)