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The UK’s biggest gas network operator has insisted the country is “well placed” to obtain enough gas this winter, after a big energy supplier warned that there was “less than a week” of reserve supply left because of recent cold weather.
National Gas, which owns Britain’s transmission network, said on Friday that “the overall picture . . . remains healthy” at the eight main gas storage sites in Great Britain.
It stressed that Britain obtained its gas from a “diverse range of sources”, such as pipelines from Europe and ships from around the world, “meaning we are well placed to respond to demand”.
The network’s comments came after Centrica said “the UK has less than a week of gas demand in store”, with inventories at storage sites roughly half full as of Thursday and at “concerningly low” levels.
Britain’s cold snap, during which temperatures have fallen to close to minus 20C in places, has led to increased heating demand from households, most of which rely on gas. The drop in temperatures, which is forecast to last into the weekend, also comes less than two weeks after Russian gas flows to Europe via Ukraine ended.
Natasha Fielding, head of European gas pricing at pricing agency Argus Media, said there was “no cause for concern from a security of supply point of view, because the UK has plenty of options to bring in more gas if the price is right”.
But she cautioned that all of the UK’s import options would “require the UK gas price premium to the EU to grow even more”, leading to higher costs for wholesalers and consumers.
Britain competes with mainland Europe for gas and liquefied natural gas supplies, and has much less gas storage capacity, leaving it more vulnerable to surges in demand. European states are also connected with a vast network of pipelines, allowing flexible supplies between countries.
About half of Britain’s gas needs are met by imports at present, including pipeline gas from Norway and mainland Europe as well as liquefied natural gas.
Energy data group Montel said in a note on Friday that, despite concerns raised by Centrica, “there is little indication of a supply slowdown”.
It added that UK wholesale gas prices had recently dipped to their lowest since late December. UK wholesale gas prices traded on the Intercontinental Exchange ended 0.7 per cent higher at 113.76p per therm on Friday.
Centrica is lobbying for government support to invest in and upgrade its Rough gas storage site so it can store hydrogen in the long term.
The facility off the Yorkshire coast is the biggest in the UK. It closed in 2017 but partially reopened in 2022 at the request of the previous Conservative government at the height of the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The energy supplier has said it is ready to invest £2bn to upgrade and redevelop the site, but wants the government to introduce a “cap and floor” mechanism to supports its revenues.
Centrica chief executive Chris O’Shea said the UK was “an outlier from the rest of Europe” on storage, and claimed that if Rough “had been operating at full capacity in recent years, it would have saved UK households £100 from both their gas and their electricity bills each winter”.
The current level of regulator Ofgem’s energy price cap, which runs until March, means a typical household is paying £1,738 a year for gas and electricity, compared with £1,717 at the end of 2024.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said it had “no concerns” and was “confident we will have a sufficient gas supply and electricity capacity to meet demand this winter”.
“We are committed to designing a new business model for hydrogen storage infrastructure. Prospective projects will have the opportunity to apply for support and more information will be provided in due course,” it added.