Centrica, who have 70% of the UK’s gas storage, have made the difficult decision to close their storage facility until the spring. This has caused the price for gas to increase by 10%, pushing it to its highest for a year.

Over the past 18 months, the facility has experienced ongoing problems which have now worsened as a result of some additional issues with one of their wells.

Unfortunately, this closure has caused winter prices to rise rapidly as there is now a real possibility of UK gas shortage.

Centrica is hoping to return a third of its capacity by November.  However, the UK may still have to rely more heavily on other sources such as domestic North Sea production and LNG (liquefied Natural Gas) cargoes this year.

All we can hope for is that this problem isn’t aggravated by an abnormally cold winter.  A mild winter would reduce the demand and the amount of gas we have to bring in from other sources.