UK gas and power prices have opened firmer this morning, according to npower’s daily market report.

The gas system is balanced despite some outages in the Norwegian shelf.

Alex Guiot from the Optimisation Desk said: “Kvitebjoern’s supply is cut by 9mcm after a compressor failure. Kaarstoe flows are experiencing the same issues. Also Heimdal field has extended its unexpected outage to 22 days, which is having an impact of 14mcm.”

On the power system, the peak margin is at around 13GW.

Wind is generating 2GW and is expected to reach 1GW later today.

Coal is producing 1GW and nuclear around 7.5GW.

Gas-fired power generation is providing 53% of the energy mix.

Brent oil is trading at $45.6/bbl (£34.6/bbl).

Mr Guiot added: “Elsewhere Brent oil prices held near two-month lows this morning amid worries that a global crude and refined product glut would weigh on markets for some time to come. The steady growth in the number of active oil rigs digging for oil in the US is spurring concerns of more shale output in the future.”