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.
Even the gas storage that we DO have is not always working properly... News out today from Reuters says that withdrawals from Centrica's Rough storage site, the largest in the UK, will be limited for a few hours today and for four days from 21 Nov. More importantly perhaps, no gas can be injected back into for two weeks starting on 18 Nov. Presumably this is all down to maintenance work, but that really should have been completed earlier in the year... Let's hope we get a mild winter!
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