UK GAS-Prices rise due to lower temperature forecasts

Jan 12 (Reuters) - British wholesale gas prices rose on Friday as lower temperatures lifted demand, despite high flows from Norway keeping the system oversupplied, traders said. * Within-day gas rose by 1.00 pence to 53.75 pence per therm at 0959 GMT. * Day-ahead gas was 1.55 pence higher at to 54.15 pence per therm. * Lower temperatures were behind the increase in gas prices, said a British gas trader. * Average temperatures on Friday could reach 7 degrees Celsius in southern Britain and are forecast to decline to 5 degrees C on Sunday, data from Britain's Met Office showed. * Britain's gas system was oversupplied by 21.7 million cubic metres (mcm), with demand forecast at 321.2 mcm and supply at 342.9 mcm/day, National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) data showed. * Gas supply from Norway to Britain on Friday was flowing at 137 mcm/day, close to the pipeline system's maximum capacity. * In the Dutch gas market, the day-ahead gas price at the TTF hub rose by 0.53 euro to 19.80 euros per megawatt hour (MWh). * The benchmark Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) -17 EU carbon contract inched up by 0.02 euro to 7.84 euros a tonne. * Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) analyst view: http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageid=united-kingdom-gas (Reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos in Oslo; editing by Nina Chestney)