OREANDA-NEWS. February 03, 2015. Prompt natural gas prices in Britain rose on Monday morning due to undersupply as cold weather increased gas consumption and gas from Norway was rerouted to mainland Europe.

The gas price for day-ahead delivery rose by 1.90 pence or 3.95 percent to 50.00 pence per therm at 0913 GMT, while the price for within-day delivery was up 2.10 pence or 4.27 percent at 51.25 pence per therm.

National Grid data showed the system was around 43 million cubic metres (mcm) short, with supply flows seen at around 316 mcm and demand forecast at around 359 mcm.

Colder-than-average weather across Europe this weekend has increased demand for gas for heating systems.

Norwegian continental shelf exports to Britain fell by 100 gigawatt hours (GWh) per day on Monday as mainland Europe took an additional 230 GWh/d of Norwegian gas compared to Friday due to colder weather, Thomson Reuters Point Carbon analysts said.

"The tight balance on the continent means its take of Norwegian gas is higher, which leaves less gas for the UK, especially amid Norwegian continental shelf outages," said analyst Francois Flament.

An ongoing outage at Norway's Kollsnes gas processing plant has been extended and is expected to last into Monday, cutting the production capacity by 34.5 million cubic metres (mcm) per day, the gas system operator Gassco said earlier.

In addition, a separate outage at Norway's Sleipner gas field cut output by 6 mcm/day, putting the total reduction at 40.5 mcm/day.

Meteorologists forecast temperatures remaining below seasonal norms at between below 0 and around 4 degrees Celsius this week with milder weather next week.

Prices for March delivery rose by 0.70 pence 46.50 pence per therm.

In the Netherlands, the day-ahead gas price at the TTF hub was up 3.23 percent at 20.80 euros per megawatt-hour.

The benchmark European Union carbon price was up 5 euro cents at 7.20 euros per tonne on ICE Futures Europe.