UK GAS-Prices rise on falling temperatures
LONDON, April 23 (Reuters) - British wholesale gas prices rose on Monday morning on forecasts of falling temperatures this week
* The day-ahead contract was 0.50 pence higher at 50.95 pence per therm at 0800 GMT, compared to the previous settlement
* Trader said that lower temperatures, after a weekend of warm weather, was driving the day-ahead contract price higher
* Weather forecasts are showing temperatures dropping slightly below normal in the second half of this week which should raise demand for heating
* Despite that, wind power generation is forecast at 9.1 gigawatts on Monday and at 9 GW on Tuesday, according to Elexon data, which is relatively strong and should reduce gas-for-power demand
* Demand is forecast at 178 million cubic metres (mcm) and flows at 185 mcm/day, leaving the system oversupplied by 7 mcm, National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) data shows
* Gas for immediate delivery settled at 52.35 pence per therm on Friday
* Further along the curve, gas for May delivery inched up by 0.10 pence to 51.35 p/therm
* In the Dutch gas market, day-ahead gas at the TTF hub had yet to trade at the time of writing but settled at 19.63 euros per megawatt hour on Friday
* The benchmark Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) -18 EU carbon contract edged down by 0.10 euro to 12.95 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 Nina Chestney)