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This is crazy. Was the UK dependent on Russian gas too?

netsharc 4y ago
Well, when Europe/Germany started buying gas from anywhere, gas prices went up (basic supply and demand...), even India is seeing price shocks because well, the ships carrying liquified gas suddenly turned around to deliver their goods to Germany.
benj111 4y ago
Not really. We mainly rely on LNG so can get it from anywhere. Problem is the market has pushed gas prices up, also our interconnects are pushing electricity and gas to the mainland as fast as we can.
- Symbiote 4y ago
  Slightly under 80% of gas used in Britain comes from the North Sea, split roughly evenly between British and Norwegian gas fields.
  - benj111 4y ago
    Fair point. I was trying to say we rely on LNG rather than russian pipeline gas for the balance of our gas.
Symbiote 4y ago
As you can see from this map [1], there is a lot of pipeline capacity between Great Britain and neighbouring countries. Currently, gas is being shipped to southern Britain where there are LNG terminals and piped to Germany etc -- Britain lacks gas storage, Germany has storage space but lacks LNG terminals. Britain sources about 40% of gas from British bits of the North Sea and another 40% from Norwegian North Sea. I'm not sure if all the rest is LNG imports. [2] [1] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Colour-online-European-gas-pipeline-network-We-show-the-transmission-network-blue_fig1_26720900 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Colour-online-European-g... [2] https://oeuk.org.uk/norway-is-now-uks-primary-gas-supplier-and-declining-north-sea-output-means-uk-faces-importing-80-of-its-gas-and-oil-within-a-decade-warns-oeuk-report/ https://oeuk.org.uk/norway-is-now-uks-primary-gas-supplier-a...
- dfawcus 4y ago
  It is a knock on effect. We've been exporting some of our power / gas due to the companies being private, and the demand on the continent. We'll also have mainland Europe scrambling to buy the Norwegian supplies, so competing with our desire for it, hence pushing up prices. Plus it seems there is now increased competition for LNG. Basically our Governments over the last couple of decades have screwed up over energy policies, and especially in closing the Rough gas storage facility. So we have something like maybe 3 days gas storage capacity, and are then subject to market prices. Since all of the Wind Turbines are backed by CCGT (and some OCGT) power stations, when the wind doesn't blow, we're burning gas for electricity. This is not an uncommon occurrence over winter, and we can haves days to weeks without significant wind, as happened last winter.
neilwilson 4y ago
The world is dependent upon LNG at the margins. The UK is a net importer and therefore the marginal price rules. China decided to go net zero and in their usual fashion decided to do it all at once. That shoved the price up last year. Russia is just the icing on the cake. The hedgers who backed the wrong horse are already bust. That took out half the gas retail sector. Now everybody's one year fixed prices are expiring and the chickens are fighting for scarce roosting space. Never a good idea to back efficiency over resilience. We're about to learn why energy and food security can't be left solely to market forces.

Well, when Europe/Germany started buying gas from anywhere, gas prices went up (basic supply and demand...), even India is seeing price shocks because well, the ships carrying liquified gas suddenly turned around to deliver their goods to Germany.

benj111 4y ago

Not really. We mainly rely on LNG so can get it from anywhere. Problem is the market has pushed gas prices up, also our interconnects are pushing electricity and gas to the mainland as fast as we can.

Symbiote 4y ago
Slightly under 80% of gas used in Britain comes from the North Sea, split roughly evenly between British and Norwegian gas fields.
- benj111 4y ago
  Fair point. I was trying to say we rely on LNG rather than russian pipeline gas for the balance of our gas.

Symbiote 4y ago

As you can see from this map [1], there is a lot of pipeline capacity between Great Britain and neighbouring countries. Currently, gas is being shipped to southern Britain where there are LNG terminals and piped to Germany etc -- Britain lacks gas storage, Germany has storage space but lacks LNG terminals. Britain sources about 40% of gas from British bits of the North Sea and another 40% from Norwegian North Sea. I'm not sure if all the rest is LNG imports. [2] [1] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Colour-online-European-gas-pipeline-network-We-show-the-transmission-network-blue_fig1_26720900 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Colour-online-European-g... [2] https://oeuk.org.uk/norway-is-now-uks-primary-gas-supplier-and-declining-north-sea-output-means-uk-faces-importing-80-of-its-gas-and-oil-within-a-decade-warns-oeuk-report/ https://oeuk.org.uk/norway-is-now-uks-primary-gas-supplier-a...

dfawcus 4y ago
It is a knock on effect. We've been exporting some of our power / gas due to the companies being private, and the demand on the continent. We'll also have mainland Europe scrambling to buy the Norwegian supplies, so competing with our desire for it, hence pushing up prices. Plus it seems there is now increased competition for LNG. Basically our Governments over the last couple of decades have screwed up over energy policies, and especially in closing the Rough gas storage facility. So we have something like maybe 3 days gas storage capacity, and are then subject to market prices. Since all of the Wind Turbines are backed by CCGT (and some OCGT) power stations, when the wind doesn't blow, we're burning gas for electricity. This is not an uncommon occurrence over winter, and we can haves days to weeks without significant wind, as happened last winter.

neilwilson 4y ago

The world is dependent upon LNG at the margins. The UK is a net importer and therefore the marginal price rules. China decided to go net zero and in their usual fashion decided to do it all at once. That shoved the price up last year. Russia is just the icing on the cake. The hedgers who backed the wrong horse are already bust. That took out half the gas retail sector. Now everybody's one year fixed prices are expiring and the chickens are fighting for scarce roosting space. Never a good idea to back efficiency over resilience. We're about to learn why energy and food security can't be left solely to market forces.