The 2013 IEA World Energy Outlook is now out, but as it's pretty expensive, and long, you might like to watch the videos of the key facts being presented by some of the key people, that the IEA has kindly uploaded to YouTube. There's three - intro, main presentation, and Q&A:
OK, well not a blown fuse literally, but a circuit breaker tripped and shut down a chunk of output from the Ormen Lange gas field, which is one of the main sources of gas for the UK, via the Langeled pipeline. This story indicates the cut should only be for 24 hours. You can see the effect on this graph of Langeled output taken from a National Grid website:
Good to see that some people are aware of the issues the UK has with gas supply - Sky News in this case!
Gas prices could soar this winter if the national supply runs short during another cold snap, an energy expert has warned. Industry analyst Peter Hughes told Sky News that a "perfect storm" last March of extreme weather and the shutdown of two major pipelines caused prices to double. And that could happen again because the Government has refused to support the storage of more gas. "It foreshadows things to come," he said.
"The situation in terms of the risks will only get worse as North Sea production runs down and demand rises. That's the double whammy. And if you don't have more storage that translates into real vulnerability."
Britain currently stores enough gas for 13 days of supply. But Germany has reserves to last 69 days, in case there is a problem with the supply from countries such as Russia.
