LONDON (Reuters) - British wholesale natural gas prices rose on Monday due to extended maintenance at a North Sea platform and on a decline in pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports.
Gas prices for delivery the next day were trading at 39.50 pence per therm at 0800 GMT (0900 BST) on Monday, up 0.25 pence since their last close, and prices for delivery within the day were up 0.4 pence to 39.60 pence a therm.
Britain's gas demand was expected to be 187.4 million cubic metres (mcm) on Monday, around 13 mcm above flows of 174.5 mcm, according to National Grid data.
"Gas flows from British North Sea production have dropped, mostly because maintenance at the St Fergus terminal was continued by Total," one gas trader said.
The St Fergus terminal, which went into a 10 mcm per day outage on May 30, was initially expected to resume gas supplies on June 27, but Total extended the outage to at least early July.
"We are also seeing a slight reduction in Norwegian imports and lower send outs from Britain's LNG storage sites," the trader added.
(Reporting by Henning Gloystein; editing by Keiron Henderson)