UK GAS-Prices dip despite undersupply on strong future flows

LONDON, March 18 (Reuters) - British wholesale gas prices slipped on Monday despite a forecast of undersupply, as flows were expected to remain robust in the absence of outages, boosted by a barrage of liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries this week.

* Within-day gas price fell 0.05 pence to 38.10 p/therm by 0905 GMT.

* Day-ahead price fell 0.55 pence per therm to 37.75 p/therm.

* At such levels both contracts are at their lowest since August 2017 and are firmly below $5 per million British thermal units.

* The system opened undersupplied with demand forecast at 280.2 million cubic metres (mcm) and supply seen at 259.6 mcm, National Grid data showed.

* Some of the undersupply was due to lower send-out rates from LNG terminals, which were expected to be down 13 mcm at 43 mcm.

* Six LNG tankers are expected to arrive this week, with three already converging on Milford Haven.

* LNG imports in March stand at 1.18 million tonnes, the highest level since October 2015.

* Flows along the Langeled pipeline from Norway rose 12 mcm.

* "Norwegian gas supply increase provides a bearish signal with no unplanned outages reported currently and substantially stronger Langeled nomination this morning," gas analysts at Refinitiv said in a note. "We expect notably soft (residential) consumption remaining below seasonal normal for the remainder of the month, likely weighing further on gas prices."

* Temperature forecasts for Monday were cut by 3.6 degrees Celsius to 6 degrees, but increased for Tuesday by 2.7 degrees. The weather is seen milder throughout the week.

* Demand for residential gas has also been reduced to 179 mcm on Monday, dropping further to 148 mcm by Wednesday.

* Peak wind generation dipped over the weekend from maximum metered capacity of 12 gigawatts (GW) and is expected far lower at 6.8 gigawatts on Monday, Elexon data showed.

* But adding 575 megawatts to power generation capacity, the Heysham 1-2 nuclear power plant restarted over the weekend after a planned maintenance.

* The April contract fell 0.55 p to 37.05 p/therm.

* The Summer 2019 contract was down 0.45 p at 37.75 p/therm.

* The day-ahead gas price at the Dutch TTF hub rose 0.13 euro to 14.98 euros per megawatt hour.

* The benchmark Dec-19 EU carbon contract was down 0.7 euro at 21.77 euros per tonne. (Reporting by Sabina Zawadzki Editing by David Holmes)