UK companies suffer gas supply cuts
It has been revealed that 94 companies in the North West of England and the Midlands have had their gas supply cut off today due to a massive spike in prices amid concerns that supplies from Norway could be disrupted in the short term. This is a nightmare scenario for the UK utility sector with UK gas usage running at record levels prior to today's concerns about supply.
The 94 companies in the North West and Midlands are on what are known as "interruptible contracts" which effectively supply them with cheaper gas in return for an agreement that there gas supply can be cut if necessary. If they continue to require additional gas they will face financial penalties in the short term. So what can the authorities do to ensure there are no further problems?
As we have mentioned are numerous occasions, the UK gas sector relies almost entirely on imported gas from areas such as Norway. Unfortunately, this then places the UK business and consumer sectors at the beck and call of overseas gas companies who may have problems of their own. The UK government is under increasing pressure to improve UK storage facilities which retain the emergency supplies of gas which may be needed in the event of supply issues.
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