UK GAS-Prices rise on low storage, late March's colder weather forecast

March 9 (Reuters) - Prices for British wholesale gas rose on Friday, despite milder weather expected in the coming days, driven by forecasts that temperatures will be lower than expected later in March and as storage levels were low following last week's unusually high demand, traders said.

* Day-ahead gas grew by 1.10 pence, to 53.00 pence per therm by 0915 GMT.

* Within-day gas was up 1.05 pence at 53.30 p/therm.

* "Τhe weather forecasts for week 12 (March 19-25) have come in particularly colder across UK and the continent, by as much as 1 degree colder relative to yesterday's forecast," said a British gas trader.

* "Gas prices have responded to this because of the relatively low level of storage across most hubs in Europe," he added.

* Southern Britain could register average temperatures of 9 degrees Celsius on Friday, rising to 13 degrees in the weekend, then dropping to 11 degrees for the first half of next week, data from Britain's Met Office showed.

* Gas supply from Norway to Britain on Friday was flowing at 131 million cubic metres (mcm) per day, on the same levels as Thursday.

* Britain's gas storage levels were as low as 401.7 mcm comparing to 1101.1 mcm last year, Thomson Reuters EIKON data showed. Most storage sites, saw their supplies depleted after late February's unusually cold weather.

* UK gas demand stood at 310.1 mcm, 26.5 mcm higher than usual for the time of year. The system was oversupplied by 8.4 mcm as flows were expected to reach 318.5 mcm on Monday.

* A liquefied natural gas (LNG) vessel carrying supplies from Norway has docked at Britain's Isle of Grain port. The country expects at least two more deliveries this month, as two vessels from Russia and Qatar are set for its ports.

* The April contract rose by 1.20 pence to 50.95 pence/therm.

* Day-ahead gas at the Dutch TTF hub was up 0.05 euros at 19.45 euros per megawatt-hour.

* The benchmark Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) -18 EU carbon contract was down 0.02 euro at 11.10 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 Keith Weir)