London (Platts)--4Dec2012/819 am EST/1319 GMT

Gas for same-day delivery lost value Tuesday morning on the UK's NBP gas trading hub as demand opened lower than expected but forecasts of colder temperatures boosted the day-ahead.

The within-day contract was valued at 68.50 pence/therm at 1200 London time, down by 0.40 p/th from Monday's close, while the day-ahead contract pushed 0.25 p/th higher to 68.70 p/th.

"Demand dropped slightly from Monday's levels, pegged at 310 million cubic meters, 10 million cu m below forecast, with the system opening up a healthy 26 million cu m long," a market analyst said.

"Day-ahead has nevertheless risen slightly with demand expected to pick up tomorrow to 339 million cu m," he said.

By midday in the UK, National Grid had revised forecast demand to 329 million cu m but the system remained long -- by by 7 million cu m with healthy imports providing support.

The Norwegian Langeled pipeline was operating at around full capacity rates of 71 million cu m/d, the Belgium Interconnector pipeline was adding 27 million cu m/d to the system and the Dutch BBL pipeline was bringing in 39 million cu m/d, Grid showed.

Temperatures in London were 2 degrees C below seasonal norms Tuesday, CustomWeather showed, and are expected to fall to 5 C below average on Wednesday with similar trends across the country.

The bullish drive extended along the curve with the January and Q1 13 contracts rising by 0.10 and 0.25 p/th to 69.15 and 68.90 p/th, respectively.

Crude futures were lower in midday European trading Tuesday, shrugging off supportive financial considerations as caution remained the dominant theme, but seasonal gas contracts held firm, supported by the bullish prompt.

The Summer 13 gas contract edged 0.10 p/th higher to 63.15 p/th and Winter 13 was unchanged at 71.05 p/th.

The Summer 14 gas contract moved up by 0.05 p/th to 63.75 p/th. At 12:00, the January ICE Brent contract traded 79 cents lower at $110.13/b.

The pullback on oil markets came despite supportive financial markets with Europe's key equity markets all higher and the dollar easing against the euro.