UK GAS-Prices edge up after drop from multi-year highs

March 6 (Reuters) - Prices for British wholesale gas edged up on Tuesday, underpinned by concerns over low storage levels, after the previous session's steep drop from multi-year highs that had been driven by freezing temperatures and supply glitches.

* Within-day gas was up a penny, or 1.9 percent, at 53.50 pence per therm (p/therm) by 1110 GMT.

* Day-ahead gas fell by 0.45 pence, or 0.83 percent, to 54 p/therm.

* The market is expected to be oversupplied on Tuesday by 15 million cubic metres (mcm), according to National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) , though Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) gas analysts pointed to several bullish factors providing a floor to prices.

* These include low LNG imports, UK gas production that has not totally recovered from outages and depleted storage after the cold snap.

* Prompt prices hit their highest in more than 10 years last week after National Grid warned of potential shortages as demand spiked because of the freezing weather that paralysed parts of Britain.

* Gas flows from the British North Sea rose to 153 mcm per day from 143 mcm/day on Monday.

* Norwegian flows to the UK are stable at 134 mcm/day, but flows from the continent fell to about 33 mcm/day along the IUK and BBL (Shenzhen: 002776.SZ - news) interconnectors from Belgium and the Netherlands, from 61 mcm/day on Monday.

* UK gas demand stood at 303.5 mcm at 1000 GMT, compared with forecast supply of 321.6 mcm, National Grid data showed.

* The April contract rose by 0.25 pence to 47.50 p/therm.

* Day-ahead gas at the Dutch TTF hub was down 0.15 euros at 20.15 euros per megawatt-hour.

* The benchmark Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) -18 EU carbon contract was up 0.07 euros at 10.43 euros a tonne.

* Thomson Reuters analyst view: http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageid=united-kingdom-gas. (Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki Editing by David Goodman)