U.K. Gas Declines as Demand Falls on Warmer Weather Forecasts

U.K. natural gas for next-day delivery fell for a second day as forecasts for warmer weather cut demand for the heating fuel.

Day-ahead gas dropped 2.2 percent, according to broker data compiled by Bloomberg. The high temperature in London will be 7 degrees Celsius (45 Fahrenheit) tomorrow and 12 degrees on Jan. 29, up from minus 1 yesterday, CustomWeather Inc. data on Bloomberg show. Demand in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. tomorrow will be 372 million cubic meters, the least since Jan. 20, National Grid Plc (NG/) data show.

Gas for tomorrow slid 1.5 pence to 65.4 pence a therm at 9:50 a.m. London time. Month-ahead gas fell 0.2 percent to 65.45 pence a therm. That’s equivalent to $10.32 per million British thermal units and compares with $3.48 per million Btu of front- month U.S. gas.

Flows from Norway, the U.K.’s biggest source of imported gas, were at a rate of 107 million cubic meters a day versus a 10-day average 113 million, Gassco AS data show.

Pipeline imports from Belgium were at 12 million cubic meters a day, the least since Jan. 12, Interconnector Ltd. data show.

Gas accounted for 35 percent of U.K. power production at 9:50 a.m., grid data show. Coal generated 41 percent, nuclear 17 percent and wind 5 percent.

Electricity for Jan. 28 dropped 6.9 percent compared with yesterday’s contract for today to 47 pounds a megawatt-hour, broker data show.

To contact the reporter on this story: Matthew Brown in London at mbrown42@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Lars Paulsson at lpaulsson@bloomberg.net