UK GAS-Prompt prices drop on system oversupply

LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - British prompt wholesale gas prices dropped on Thursday, pressured by lower demand forecasts, expectations of higher supply and high European gas storage levels.

* The day-ahead contract fell 0.2 pence to 26 p/therm by 0905 GMT.

* Gas for within-day delivery fell 2.3 p to 25.7 p/therm.

* Britain's gas system was oversupplied by 18.6 million cubic metres, with demand forecast at 222.6 mcm and flows at 241 mcm/day, National Grid data showed.

* Within-day residential gas demand was expected to be lower than previously predicted, with stable supply from Norway and rising liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries causing oversupply.

* Wind power generation is forecast to be strong, reducing demand for gas.

* Output from wind turbines is expected at 7.2 gigawatts (GW) on Thursday, rising to 8.2 GW on Friday, Elexon data showed. Total UK wind power capacity is 12.1 GW.

* Gas-for-power demand is expected to be lower than previously predicted on Friday, over the weekend and during working hours next week.

* Temperatures are forecast to drop from Monday, leading to a rise in residential consumption, however.

* On the supply side, an unplanned outage at Norway's Aasta Hansteen gas field affected 13.7 mcm of production on Thursday Gassco data showed.

* Norway's flows to continential Europe dropped on Thursday, but there was no impact on UK deliveries.

* Refintiv analysts expect a rise in flows from Norway to Britain via the Langeled pipeline to up to 60 mcm/day early next week from 47 mcm on Thursday.

* Gas flows from Britain to the Netherlands via the BBL pipline are expected to drop on Thursday, while flows from Britain to Belgium are unchanged at zero.

* Liquefied natural gas (LNG) sendout in Britain is 4 mcm higher at 64 mcm on Thursday.

* Six LNG tankers are excpected in Britain by Nov. 6, with three of those coming from the United States.

* French utility EDF can continue operating nuclear reactors that have generators with defective welding, the head of France's ASN regulator told Les Echos newspaper on Thursday. EDF said in September that the problems were identified in six reactors, driving gas prices higher.

* Storage across Europe is almost full, keeping spot gas prices significantly lower than a year ago.

* Prices also weakened further along the curve.

* The November gas contract was down 0.9 p at 39.60 p/therm.

* Day-ahead gas at the Dutch TTF hub fell 0.38 euros to 10.07 euros per megawatt hour.

* The benchmark Dec-19 EU carbon contract eased by 0.06 euros to 24.69 euros a tonne. (Reporting by Ekaterina Kravtsova Editing by David Goodman )