UK GAS-Day-ahead prices edge lower on oversupply

LONDON, April 11 (Reuters) - British wholesale day-ahead gas prices edged lower on Tuesday morning as higher imports from Norway contributed to an oversupplied system, but forecasts of cooler temperatures limited falls. * British day-ahead gas prices down 0.15 pence to 38.50 pence per therm at 1018 GMT. * Within-day contract up 0.05 pence at 38.30 p/therm. * "The market is edging down today but is supported by cooler temperatures for the second half of the month," said Katrina Oldham, a trader from British Inenco Ltd. Excess supply had caused prompt prices to fall by nearly a penny on Monday. * The gas system was oversupplied by 18.6 million cubic metres (mcm), with demand forecast at 232.8 mcm/day and flows at 251.4 mcm/day, National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) data showed. * Imports from Norway through the Langeled pipeline rose to around 50 mcm/day from 35 mcm/day and will likely increase to 55-60 mcm/day this week as an outage at Norway's Kvitebjørn gas field ends, analysts at Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) said. * Further boosting supply, an LNG tanker docked in Britain's South Hook from Qatar on Tuesday and two more are due to arrive over the next week. * Wind and solar generation of 9 gigawatts (GW) meanwhile weakened demand from gas-fired power stations. Peak wind generation is expected to rise by 1 GW on Wednesday, Elexon data showed. * Temperatures are forecast to fall by around 2-3 degrees Celsius from the current 13 degrees by the weekend, according to Britain's Met Office. * The May gas contract was down 0.10 pence at 38.60 p/therm. * The third-quarter 2017 contract was down 0.10 pence at 38.85 p/therm. * Day-ahead gas price at the Dutch TTF hub was flat at 15.60 euros per megawatt hour. * The benchmark Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) -17 EU carbon contract up 0.06 euro to 4.85 euros per tonne. * Thomson Reuters analyst view: http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageid=united-kingdom-gas (Reporting by Peter Hobson; editing by Jason Neely)