UK GAS-Prices rise on low Norway flows, expected IUK return

June 28 (Reuters) - British wholesale gas prices rose on Wednesday as Norwegian gas flows remained at low levels and on expectations of higher exports to continental Europe when the InterconnectorUK pipeline returns from maintenance on Thursday. * Day-ahead gas price rose by 1.00 pence to 38.50 pence/therm at 0955 GMT. * The contract for working days next week rose by 1.75 pence to 37.75 p/therm. * "I would say that day-ahead is up due to the return of IUK tommorow, as exports are likely to rebound to previous levels. Furthermore Entry SEGAL restriction is ongoing," said a British gas trader. * The IUK between Britain and continental Europe has been offline due to maintenance for two weeks and is expected to come back online on June 29. * Wednesday's gas imports to Britain from Norway remained low at 42 million cubic metres (mcm) but were 4 mcm higher than Tuesday's levels. * Gassco revised the unplanned gas outage at Entry SEGAL pipeline to 18.1 mcm from 9.1 mcm for Wednesday and extended its expected duration to between eight and ten days. * Entry SEGAL's outage is caused by an ongoing production outage at Norway's Gjoea gas field after a gas leak that occurred last week. * Britain's gas system was slightly oversuplied, with demand forecast at 150.6 mcm and flows at 153.3 mcm/day, National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) data showed. * Peak wind power generation is forecast at 4.6 gigawatts (GW) on Wednesday and is expected to rise to 5.1 GW on Thursday, National Grid data showed. * Average temperatures on Wednesday could reach 18 degrees Celsius in southern Britain and are forecast to rise up to 22 degrees C over the weekend, UK Met Office data showed. * July gas contract rose by 0.14 pence to 37.67 p/therm. * "The potential for the Gjoae outage to continue into next month may explain why July is up," said the trader. * The British baseload day-ahead power price was down 1.20 pounds to 39.25 pounds per megawatt hour (MWh) * Day-ahead gas at the Dutch TTF hub edged down by 0.19 euros at 15.13 euros/MWh. * Benchmark Dec-17 EU carbon contract rose by 0.01 euros to 4.95 euros a tonne. * Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) analyst view: http://emea1.apps.cp.extranet.thomsonreuters.biz/cms/?pageid=united-kingdom-gas (Reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos in Oslo; editing by Nina Chestney)