Britain now exporting supplies to Europe through pipeline as shortages spread<...> Despite freezing temperatures and rising demand in Britain, traders switched from importing to exporting gas through an interconnector pipeline to continental Europe as a growing row between Russia and Ukraine left many countries short of supplies.British wholesale prices have leapt in recent days due to the crisis, leading to warnings that UK householders could be denied long-awaited cuts in fuel prices. The price of gas hit 73p a therm - up 26% in three days.Government sources warned UK energy companies not to use the Ukraine crisis as an excuse to delay passing on the benefits of otherwise lower world energy prices. One senior Whitehall figure said: "We would expect the energy companies to be responsible and not use this dispute as an excuse to hold off on the price reductions they have talked about which customers are expecting in the spring." <...> The crisis will reignite concerns that the UK has left itself open to exploitation by foreign companies who came in and bought up major UK utilities leaving British Gas as one of the few locally owned entities. EDF of France and E.ON and RWE of Germany are among the continental groups that dominate the sector. There was particular concern that the huge foreign-owned utilities that dominate power supply in the UK are putting their continental customers ahead of UK energy users, although they denied this. These companies - some of which have part-government ownership - have used a free market to buy British assets in a way that is considered unlikely to occur on mainland Europe. They are also able to use the more liberalised gas market to fill up their storage facilities during the summer and autumn. "Even in winter, if they can get hold of UK gas via the interconnector they will use that instead of dipping into their storage facilities. By contrast, UK players can't access gas from the European market as there is no liquid market to buy from ... also there is no third party access to European gas storage facilities, again in contrast to the UK," said one frustrated British gas trader.
Britain now exporting supplies to Europe through pipeline as shortages spread
<...> Despite freezing temperatures and rising demand in Britain, traders switched from importing to exporting gas through an interconnector pipeline to continental Europe as a growing row between Russia and Ukraine left many countries short of supplies.
British wholesale prices have leapt in recent days due to the crisis, leading to warnings that UK householders could be denied long-awaited cuts in fuel prices. The price of gas hit 73p a therm - up 26% in three days.
Government sources warned UK energy companies not to use the Ukraine crisis as an excuse to delay passing on the benefits of otherwise lower world energy prices. One senior Whitehall figure said: "We would expect the energy companies to be responsible and not use this dispute as an excuse to hold off on the price reductions they have talked about which customers are expecting in the spring."
<...>
The crisis will reignite concerns that the UK has left itself open to exploitation by foreign companies who came in and bought up major UK utilities leaving British Gas as one of the few locally owned entities. EDF of France and E.ON and RWE of Germany are among the continental groups that dominate the sector.
There was particular concern that the huge foreign-owned utilities that dominate power supply in the UK are putting their continental customers ahead of UK energy users, although they denied this.
These companies - some of which have part-government ownership - have used a free market to buy British assets in a way that is considered unlikely to occur on mainland Europe. They are also able to use the more liberalised gas market to fill up their storage facilities during the summer and autumn.
"Even in winter, if they can get hold of UK gas via the interconnector they will use that instead of dipping into their storage facilities. By contrast, UK players can't access gas from the European market as there is no liquid market to buy from ... also there is no third party access to European gas storage facilities, again in contrast to the UK," said one frustrated British gas trader.
The conclusion of this whine is perhaps that the British, after happily helping to support a "dazzling economy" for years by exporting North Sea gas, now wish for an end to free markets and a return to state control?
In this case, UK gas owners get a higher price for their gas on the continent than they would selling in the UK: surely that is a good thing for them. And UK gas users presumably get cheaper gas than they would on the continent the rest of the time, thanks to liberalisation. So where's the problem? In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
So where's the problem?
