Gas Markets
In researching the new gas courses for my training programme, I discovered the etymology of the word “gas” - appropriately, it derives from the Greek word khaos meaning “chaos”. Sixteenth century Flemish scientist Joannes Baptista van Helmont, was interested in the process of combustion, [...]
Gas market tightness has caused prices to rise sharply over the past few weeks, not only pushing electricity prices higher, but also causing supply issues in industries such as fertiliser manufacture which rely on natural gas as a feedstock. This is creating major headaches [...]
As we begin to emerge from the covid lockdown there is a lot of talk about a “green recovery” and “building-back green”, with a renewed focus on hydrogen. Last week the Confederation of British Industry (“CBI”) with the University of Birmingham called on the [...]
Last week I spoke about how to manage the transition to a low carbon gas network at the Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum. Much of the conference covered the different available approaches to de-carbonising the gas network, in particular conversion to hydrogen and [...]
In the last few weeks there have been a number of announcements by the Government and others on the challenging subject of the de-carbonisation of heat. Heating and cooling currently accounts for nearly half of UK energy consumption, and around 50% of UK emissions [...]
After a few quiet years, the gas markets are going through some interesting times. Although the global supply glut continues, with tightening not expected until the 2020s, short-run supply and demand fluctuations are causing significant gas price spikes. According to Timera Energy, European gas demand [...]
As the UK shivers under attack from the “Beast from the East” – this morning National Grid issued a Gas Deficit Warning, indicating that the gas system was almost 48 million cubic metres (“mcm”) short relative to forecast demand. At 05:00, National Grid was [...]
The past few weeks have seen unseasonably cold weather in the UK - we even had a dusting of snow in London(!) - which has inevitably put pressure on energy supplies, particularly against the backdrop of the Rough closure. Gas demand rose to its [...]
Last week the Competition and Markets Authority ("CMA") announced that it has provisionally accepted an application from Centrica for the company to be released from the historic undertakings relating to the Rough gas storage facility. The application came on the back of Centrica's decision [...]
On Saturday the LNG carrier Maran Gas Mystras docked at National Grid's Isle of Grain facility bringing with it the UK's first cargo of US LNG since a small cargo that arrived at the Canvey Island terminal in 1964. This new shipment, enough to [...]