UK GAS-Prices up on ongoing Norwegian field outages

LONDON, Aug 31 (Reuters) - British wholesale gas prices were slightly higher on Friday morning as ongoing outages at Norwegian gas fields and strong exports have prompted withdrawals from storage.

* Day-ahead gas price was up 0.45 pence at 69.75 pence per therm, while gas for immediate delivery was 0.35 pence higher at 70.25 p/therm

* Prompt prices are trading at around levels last seen in March this year

* The curve has also been gaining ground. The Q1 2019 price rose as far as 76 p/therm in the previous session, which would be a high enough level to attract liquefied natural gas cargoes from Russia to Britain instead of Japan, said Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) gas analyst Oliver Sanderson

* Flows from Norway through Langeled are lower than the previous day at 16 mcm

* Langeled flows are expected to increase towards 30 mcm/day as the Troll field returns to service by Monday but an outage at Asgard field will continue for another few weeks

* Despite that, the system is largely balanced, with demand forecast at 171 mcm and flows at 174 mcm/day, National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) data shows

* UK Coninental Shelf production is flat but several outages are coming up from September which could reduce output

* Exports to continental Europe have increased and withdrawals from storage are strong

* The September gas price at the Dutch TTF hub was up 0.45 euro at 26.27 euros per megawatt hour

* The benchmark Dec (Shanghai: 600875.SS - news) -18 EU carbon contract was 0.29 euro higher at 21.45 euros a tonne (Reporting by Nina Chestney)