While you were watching the EU referendum, something happened at Rough...

While we were all caught up in the EU referendum this week, there was an item in the news about the UK's largest gas storage facility, Rough:

Wholesale gas prices have been volatile following news that the UK's largest gas storage facility is being shut down for 42 days.

Normally, gas would be being injected into Rough right now, and was being until a couple of days ago, as you can see from the first graph on this page. The update on Centrica's website says:

In March 2015, CSL began conducting testing and verification works on the Rough wells. In the course of conducting these works, CSL has identified an additional issue on one of the wells tested. As a consequence, CSL has ceased all Rough injection and withdrawal operations. CSL will seek to expedite testing on the issue identified and expects this period of testing to last at least 42 days.

The current restart date is 3 August, but of course it could be later, given the above update says "at least 42 days". If storage isn't filled quickly enough over the summer, we'd better hope for a mild winter, or we might run into difficulties... One thing that's clear is that Rough is showing its age, and has had several mechanical breakdowns in the past 10 years. Worth keeping an eye on over the summer...