Gas prices change direction shrugging off previous gains
Gas prices changed direction on Tuesday, shrugging off gains made in the previous session.
Subdued demand and an oversupplied British system combined to pressure contracts at the front-end, with the April-24 front-month contract posting some of the largest moves of the session, shedding around 0.12p/kWh when compared to its previous settlement.
Lower-than-average gas demand likely played as a prime source of pressure. According to data from National Gas actual demand fell by more than 4% day-on-day and was a significant 38.5mcm below the seasonal norm, this subsequently pushed the British system into oversupply which was 19.4mcm long at 15:00 London time.
Healthy European storage reserves likely played into the bearish sentiment, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe shows continental storage levels currently stand at over 59% fullness, almost 14 percentage points higher than the 5-year average.
This morning gas prices have opened relatively in line with their previous closing prices at the NBP.
The UK is currently consuming 35.96 GW’s of electricity at the time of writing (14:00 – 14:30).
Wind is currently contributing 15.22 GW’s (39.83%) of the UK’s electricity generation at the time of writing. Gas is currently only having to contribute 3.72 GW’s (9.73%) of the total.
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