UK must urgently address gas dependency imbalance: Institution of Civil Engineers

During a week which saw a reduction in gas supply to some of the UK’s major business users, the Institution of Civil Engineers says that the issue needs addressing as a high priority.

Commenting after the second gas balancing alert issued by the National Grid, director general of the Institution of Civil Engineers Tom Foulkes said:

“The UK’s gas policy needs urgent re-thinking. We are far too dependent on gas... This dependence is a throw-back to the 1990s when we had an abundant supply of gas in the North Sea and it was cheaper than other sources. However, nowadays we depend heavily on international markets and as the last few days have shown, they are not reliable and will end up costing us dearly.

“The UK has the largest demand for gas in Europe but we have very little storage capacity in comparison. It makes sense commercially and for ongoing security of supply to focus on urgently addressing this."

www.ice.org.uk

•Date: 8th Jan 2010 • Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: BC general
Rate this article or make a comment - click here