UK GAS-Prices up as Norwegian outage ends, crude oil rises

* Kvitebjørn outage ends

* Brent crude price rises for first time in 7 days

June 17 (Reuters) - British wholesale gas prices rose on Friday morning as an unplanned outage in Norway ended and crude oil prices made gains for the first time in seven days.

Gas for within-day delivery was 0.20 pence higher at 34.35 pence per therm at 0843 GMT from the previous settlement, while gas for weekend delivery was up 0.65 pence at 34.25 p/therm.

An unplanned outage at Norway's Kvitebjørn is thought to be over, which could raise Norwegian production as the day goes on.

The outage was due to end on Friday at 0550 CET (0350 GMT).

"Prompt prices are currently offered higher, though spreads are reasonably wide and liquidity through has been limited so far this morning," said Andrew Crabtree, pricing and risk analyst at Wingas UK Limited.

The system is actually 9 million cubic metres (mcm) oversupplied, National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) data shows, with demand forecast at 176.1 mcm and supply expected to be 185.1 mcm/day.

Crude oil prices could also be offering support to gas prices, as Brent crude rose on Friday for the first time in seven days as markets took a breather from concerns about the impact of Britain's possible exit from the European Union.

Gas for October delivery rose by 1.55 pence to 36.75 p/therm.

Annual maintenance at the UK Interconnector pipeline started this week and there will be no flows until the work ends on June 30.

This means there cannot be any imports from or exports to continental Europe during this time.

"The cut of exports to Continental Europe leaves medium-range storage as the main flexible source to balance the UK system which could lead to a sharp drop in prices on the days when large amount of injections are needed to balance the system," said Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) gas analyst Cecile Langevin.

In the Netherlands' gas market, the day-ahead price at the TTF hub was up 0.16 euro at 14.43 euros per megawatt-hour.

In Europe's carbon market, the front-year EU allowance price inched up by 0.03 euro to 5.74 euros per tonne. (Reporting by Nina Chestney)