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UK GAS-Gains driven by sharply lower LNG send-out and short system
* LNG terminal send-out nominated sharply lower
* Dutch gas intake reductions add to short system
* Spot prices up over 4 pct
April 1 (Reuters) - British natural gas prices rallied sharply on Wednesday on an undersupplied system caused by reduced send-out from liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and lower Dutch imports.
Gas prices for within-day delivery were up 2 pence per therm or 4.15 percent at 50.15 pence by 0751 GMT, slightly off their early morning highs, while day-ahead gas rose 1.22 pence to 49.50 pence.
The network opened 32 million cubic metres/day short of supply with demand estimated by National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) at 251.2 mcm.
Nominated flows from Britain's South Hook LNG import terminal saw greater than expected reductions to nine mcm from 26 mcm on Tuesday, taking market participants by surprise.
Cuts may reflect a hangover from production maintenance in March at the world's biggest LNG exporter Qatar, which supplies South Hook and Britain with the fuel, analysts at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon said.
"We have therefore adjusted our LNG send-out forecast from 30 mcm/day to 20 mcm/day in the next few days, increasing to 30 mcm/day next week as we should see some confirmed cargoes to South Hook by next week," the analysts said.
A gas trader at a major German utility said price gains were led by a short system and less LNG intake, spilling over from prompt markets to some later-dated contracts.
On the near-curve, the new month-ahead gas contract May rose 1.63 percent to 46.65 pence per therm.
Supplies were under pressure as flows from the Centrica (LSE: CNA.L - news) -operated Barrow South gas terminal remained at zero, although output was nominated at 2 mcm, while Dutch imports more than halved to 6 mcm overnight.
Domestic gas output from the UK Continental Shelf at 119 mcm/day was 4 mcm below nominated levels.
Flows into Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) 's Bacton terminal moved lower overnight to 8.5 mcm/day from about 11 mcm on Tuesday, according to National Grid data. Shell did not respond to a request for comment.
Britain is cutting back gas exports to Belgium as a result of tight supplies. Exports should fall 6 mcm on Wednesday, 5 mcm below the previous session, according to nomination data.
Prices for winter delivery were up 0.68 percent at 51.45 pence per therm.
In the Netherlands, the day-ahead gas price at the TTF hub was down 0.45 percent at 22.30 euros per megawatt-hour.
The benchmark European Union carbon price was down 1 percent at 6.90 euros per tonne on ICE Futures Europe. (Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic; editing by David Clarke)
