London (Platts)--11Feb2013/804 am EST/1304 GMT

Gas demand in the UK pushed 14% above norms Monday as snow covered parts of the country, including London, but prices fell on the NBP trading hub as supplies proved ample during what is expected to be the highest priced week left for the season, a market source said.

At 1200 GMT, gas for same-day delivery was valued at 66.10 pence/therm, down by 2.10 p/th from Friday's close, and the day-ahead contract fell by 1.5 p/th to 66.25 p/th.

At midday, National Grid had forecast demand pegged at 353 million cubic meters, with the system comfortably balanced after spending the morning long.

Reduced capacity at the Norwegian Karsto gas processing terminal over the weekend had no lingering supply or price implications Monday, one trader said, as exports from the Continent to the UK remained strong.

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Operator Gassco said processing problems resulted in a volume impact of 25 million cu m/day at Karsto on Saturday and Sunday.

Gas flows from Norway via the Langeled pipeline were steady at around full capacity rates of 70 million cu m/d and the Belgian Interconnector and Dutch BBL pipeline were feeding into the UK at rates of 21 million cu m/d and 37 million cu m/d, respectively.

The UK's Rough storage facility continued withdrawing at around full capacity rates of 46 million cu m/d and medium range facilities Holford and Hornsea were brought online around the beginning of the gas day at rates of 13 and 16 million cu m/d at midday.

Contributing to the heightened demand were temperatures below long-term averages across the country but by Thursday CustomWeather forecasts temperatures above norms, including 3 degree Celsius above in London.

The bearish trend continued to the front month contract which shed 0.85 p/th at 65.00 p/th.

Q2, 13 was down by 0.45 p/th at 63.55 p/th.

"Seasonal contracts have gapped lower this morning with the weaker prompt and oil prices slipping slightly," a market analyst said.

Summer and Winter 13 gas contracts lost 0.45 and 0.30 p/th at 63.40 and 70.45 p/th, respectively.

Summer 14 was down by 0.30 p/th at 64.35 p/th.

Crude futures were near intra-day lows in mid-morning European trading, with Brent pulling back from Friday's nine-month highs.

At 1125 GMT, the March ICE Brent contract traded 64 cents lower at $118.26/barrel.

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