[1andrew1]

Breakdown of gas storage talks leaves UK exposed to price surges, say experts

Impasse over subsidies increases country’s dependence on expensive LNG imports

Britain will be vulnerable to gas shortages and high energy prices next winter because of the failure of the government and Centrica to reach agreement on expanding the UK’s largest gas storage site, energy experts and MPs have warned.

Centrica, which owns British Gas, partly reopened the Rough gas storage site off the Yorkshire coast, at the government’s request last October — five years after it was closed to new injections. But the site is operating at only a fifth of its previous capacity.

The company had been lobbying the government for consumer-funded minimum revenue guarantees that it says it needs if it is to invest the £150mn required to double Rough’s capacity to 60bn cubic feet by next winter.

Talks between the government and Centrica over the new funding mechanism have collapsed in recent weeks and Centrica has warned that it will not be able to expand the capacity in time for next winter.

https://www.ft.com/content/0ebf0cf1-...6-ec060fd94f66