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UK has ‘less than a week’ of gas stores, says Centrica

Owner of British Gas says low temperatures have strained supplies

Inventories at gas storage sites were, as of Thursday, 26 per cent lower than at the same point last year, Centrica said on Friday, leaving them roughly half full 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.

“The UK has less than a week of gas demand in store,” Centrica said in a statement on Friday.

“We are an outlier from the rest of Europe when it comes to the role of storage in our energy system and we are now seeing the implications of that,” added chief executive Chris O’Shea.

Britain has much lower storage capacity compared with countries in mainland Europe, leaving it more vulnerable to surges in demand for gas.

European states are also interconnected with a vast network of pipelines, allowing flexible supplies between countries.

The UK competes with mainland Europe for gas and liquefied natural gas supplies, and its gas prices need to be at a meaningful premium to European prices to incentivise traders to send gas to the UK.

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.

https://www.ft.com/content/cbd527c8-...c-c70907116e7b