The gas system is undersupplied by more than 20mcm this morning, according to npower’s daily market report.

That’s due to a decrease in imports from Holland and particularly Norway.

Flows through the Nowegian pipeline Langeled are just 50mcm compared to nearly 70mcm most of the week.

Tim Carter from npower’s optimisation desk said: “There is an ongoing outage but the reduction seems to be driven by commercial drivers rather than any technical issue.

“The same is probably true of [the Dutch] Balgzand Bacton Line flows which are down to just 5mcm today.”

The UK’s Interconnector is currently exporting 18mcm. There is high CCGT gas demand today at more than 45mcm due to lower wind levels.

LNG exports remain healthy but there is just one tanker currently confirmed for South Hook which arrives tomorrow.

Power supply margins have tightened due to less wind and lower interconnector imports.

CCGT and coal generation has increased to 18GW and 12GW respectively.

Mr Carter added: “Wind generation is currently only providing 1.7GW and although it is due to pick up towards 7GW tomorrow it will only reach 2GW by the peak demand period this afternoon.”

The situation isn’t helped by very low imports from Europe, he added.

The price of oil has increased and is now trading at $45.7 a barrel (£30/Bbl).