Norwegian supply outages triggers gas price increases
After a series of losses, gas prices went up on Tuesday likely on the back of multiple Norwegian outages.
According to data from offshore operator Gassco three facilities were taken offline for unplanned maintenance, reducing available volumes by over 18mcm/d.
However, late afternoon trade saw a change in direction with prices falling back towards the end of the day. The end result was drop of 0.05p/kWh in the value of the May-24 front-month contract when compared to its previous settlement.
The change in direction can be attributed to a surge in wind-generation during the day. According to data from National Grid, wind-output increased by a huge 70% when compared to the previous gas day, subsequently reducing reliance on CCGT (combined cycle gas turbine) offtake which fell by more than 85% when compared to the same period.
Gas prices opened in positive territory this morning, although many contracts are heading back towards their previous closing price at time of writing.
The UK is currently consuming 35.62 GW’s of electricity (10:00 – 10:30).
Wind is currently generating 12.46 GW’s (32.77%) of the UK’s electricity with gas only having to contribute 5.38 GW’s (14.16%) at the time of writing.
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