Market Comments (12/03/10): Volatility in the NBP gas market fed into near term power prices, in early trade, as concerns remained over deliveries from the Ormen Lange gas field. Most prompt products were bid up in early trade but gradually lost value later to close near unchanged day on day. Prompt power also weakened as confidence grows in milder weather forecasts and the likely drop in demand that this will trigger. On the curve Winter’10 and Summer’10 baseload were assessed flat at the end of trade with the far curve posting small losses on the back of weaker coal and carbon markets. EUA Year 2010 lost €0.25 to end the session at €13.00/tCOe. April’10 lost £0.14/MWh through the close to be assessed at £34.12/MWh at the end of trading.

Market Comments (12/03/10): The prompt and curve eased yesterday following a volatile day of trading. Contracts traded up strongly in the morning as Langeled flows had not yet recovered, languishing just above the 40mcm mark, which caused nerves in the market. Within day traded above 40p/th intraday just after midday but then fell sharply thereafter as news of the issue being fixed was released - although flows did not pick up until this morning. The day ahead contract followed a similar pattern and closed 1.5p/th lower than the previous close at 35p/th. Demand was just over 370mcm yesterday and the system remained short until 14:00 as a combination of falling demand and strengthening supply sources brought the system back into balance. Grain was important on the supply side yesterday, moving up from 10mcm to 26mcm by the end of the day, South Hook delivered at around 29mcm. Most significantly was the resumption of imports via the Interconnector which moved up to 15mcm mid-afternoon. Losses on the curve were in a relatively tight band, up to a maximum of 0.27p/th. Seasons Summer 10 and Winter 10 lost 0.13p/th and 0.14p/th respectively, also following the same trading pattern as the prompt, although size of movement was far less. Demand this morning is 362mcm and the system is 2mcm long.