UK GAS-Prices steady ahead of cooler weather
* System short 5 mcm - National Grid (Amsterdam: NG8.AS - news)
* Maintenance at SEGAL curbs Norwegian exports
LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - British gas prices were little changed on Monday in a near balanced system with the outlook for cooler weather supportive of prices for the remainder of the week.
Gas for immediate delivery traded down 0.05 pence, or 0.2 percent, at 28.85 pence per therm as of 0953 GMT. Gas for delivery Tuesday was up 0.20 pence or 0.7 percent at 28.95 pence per therm.
Britain's gas system was undersupplied by 5 million cubic metres (mcm), with demand forecast at 288 mcm, in line with seasonal norms, while supply was 283 mcm, according to National Grid data.
Temperatures are expected to drop below seasonal norms from Wednesday, boosting demand for gas for heating.
Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) analysts said they expected the higher demand to trigger an increase in storage withdrawals later in the week.
"We now forecast 49 mcm/d of withdrawals between Monday and Friday compared to 39 mcm/d in our forecast on Friday," they said.
Flows into St Fergus Shell were down sharply on Monday due to maintenance at the Norwegian entry to the SEGAL pipeline, due to last until 0600 CET Tuesday.
Further along the curve, gas for March was trading down 0.05 pence or 0.2 percent at 28.75 pence per therm.
In the Netherlands, the day-ahead gas price at the TTF hub fell 0.45 euro to 12.25 euros per megawatt-hour, while in the European carbon market, front-year allowances were down 0.28 euro at 5.29 euros a tonne. (Reporting by Sarah McFarlane; Editing by Mark Potter)