UK GAS-Prices rise due to tighter supply

* Maintenance outages continue to weigh on prices

* Bacton Seal flows seen resuming

* Higher temperatures expected next week

LONDON, Aug 10 (Reuters) - British wholesale gas prices were slightly higher on Wednesday morning as ongoing maintenance outages tightened supply.

Gas for immediate delivery was 0.23 pence higher at 33.48 pence per therm at 0915 GMT from the previous settlement, while the day-ahead contract was up 0.25 pence at 33.50 pence per therm.

The UK gas system was 9 million cubic metres (mcm) undersupplied, National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) data shows.

Supply through Norway's Vesterled pipeline is still at zero.

"This can be bullish for the day-ahead but given that this has been the case for the last couple of days this should be already price in. More supply has come online today and some more is expected tomorrow," said Dimitrios Saratzis, gas analyst at Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) .

Flows from the UK Continental Shelf are at around 100 mcm/d.

A number of outages have reduced UKCS flows. St Fergus Mobil flows are at zero as maintenance at the SAGE pipeline and various fields continues until Aug. 19.

An unplanned outage at North Morecambe gas sub-terminal has been extended until Sept. 29, from the previous estimated end date of Aug. 15, which is reducing flows by 8 mcm/d.

Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) 's Bacton Seal flows, however, are slowly resuming after maintenance which ended on Monday.

For the next couple of weeks, demand could be lower, due to higher temperatures.

"The weekend and especially next week will be generally sunnier and drier and temperatures will rise to above normal values in the course of the next week," said Thomson Reuters metereologist Georg Muller.

"The week after next week could get slowly more unsettled as high pressure influence is likely to weaken but cooler than normal weather is not likely," he added.

In the Dutch gas market, the day-ahead gas price at the TTF hub rose by 0.20 euro to 12.85 euro per megawatt hour. In the European carbon market, front-year allowances were down 0.07 euro to 4.81 euros a tonne. (Reporting by Nina Chestney)