{"id":32512,"date":"2022-05-30T14:58:06","date_gmt":"2022-05-30T14:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/05\/30\/government-mulls-reopening-gas-storage-for-winter-2\/"},"modified":"2022-05-30T14:58:06","modified_gmt":"2022-05-30T14:58:06","slug":"government-mulls-reopening-gas-storage-for-winter-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/05\/30\/government-mulls-reopening-gas-storage-for-winter-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Government mulls reopening gas storage for winter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div >\n<p ><b >The government is in talks with energy company Centrica about reopening a giant gas storage facility if European supplies from Russia are disrupted.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The talks are part of contingency plans being examined ahead of winter amid war in Ukraine.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Centrica&#8217;s Yorkshire facility was mothballed in 2017 when the government refused to subsidize it. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The BBC understands the government may now be ready to help restore a strategic gas reserve.   <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The talks are part of plans for a &#8220;reasonable worst-case scenario&#8221; in which Russia halts all gas supplies to Europe, resulting in Norwegian gas supplies being diverted from the UK to Europe.   <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >These plans include extending the life of the UK&#8217;s few remaining coal-fired power stations.  Business Minister Kwasi Kwarteng wrote to owners EDF, Drax and Uniper in April and on Friday last week instructed National Grid&#8217;s electricity network operator to examine what would be needed to expand production.   <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The Government has also contacted EDF to see what options are available to extend the life of Hinkley Point B, a nuclear power station in Somerset.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The UK receives a very small amount of natural gas from Russia, but relies on Norway for a third of supplies.  There are concerns that Norwegian supplies could be diverted if Russia halts supplies to the European Union or the bloc boycotts supplies over the Kremlin&#8217;s attack on Ukraine. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The EU relies on Russia for 40% of its gas supplies.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The UK also imports liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar and the US. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >A flurry of LNG has arrived in the UK in recent weeks as suppliers use the UK terminals as a hub for deliveries to Europe.  Tankers have been turned away as there is no space to store.   <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >At full capacity, Centrica&#8217;s facility in Rough, Yorkshire can store the UK&#8217;s gas needs for 10 to 12 days.  Company insiders say that if they started work now, up to nine days could supply Britain&#8217;s gas needs through this winter.   <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >It was closed five years ago when Centrica told the government that the \u00a32-3 billion investment needed to extend its lifespan made no economic sense for a private company.    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >At the time, the government refused to subsidize the plant, telling Centrica &#8220;unless the market thinks it makes sense, neither does the government,&#8221; according to a company insider.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Government sources said there was a slim chance that Russia would halt all gas supplies to the EU or that Norway would divert supplies from the UK.   <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >They pointed out that many Norwegian gas wells are directly connected to the UK and could not be diverted. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Another source of energy could be the Hinkley Point B nuclear power plant, which has already had its life extended from an original shutdown date in 2011 and was scheduled to shut down in July this year.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >An EDF insider told the BBC it would not be free and the timing is very tight.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;Each extension costs more in terms of investment, as does the decision to get your car through the next MOT, but nuclear power has the added dimension of safety proofing,&#8221; he said.  &#8220;So it&#8217;s not necessarily easy, and given the July 2022 closing date, that&#8217;s going to change direction very soon if they plan to close in a couple of weeks.&#8221; <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The BBC understands that the government, which is awaiting evidence of the business case and the safety implications of such an extension, has not made a formal request to EDF. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >A spokesman for the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) said: &#8220;Any extension of the operating life of a nuclear power plant would require a robust safety case from the operator to demonstrate that the plant can be operated safely for an extended period of time. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;This evidence would then be thoroughly assessed by a team of experienced ONR inspectors.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Speaking to Times Radio, Government Secretary Chris Philp described the contingency plans as &#8220;a sensible precautionary measure given that gas supplies from Russia and Ukraine are so badly disrupted for obvious reasons and of course we use quite a bit of gas to generate electricity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >He added: &#8220;A lot of ours comes from Norway and in the form of LNG, but of course any disruption to the global gas market will have a &#8216;knock-on effect&#8217; on the UK.&#8221; <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government is in talks with energy company Centrica about reopening a giant gas storage facility if European supplies from Russia are disrupted. The talks are part of contingency plans being examined ahead of winter amid war in Ukraine. Centrica&#8217;s Yorkshire facility was mothballed in 2017 when the government refused to subsidize it. The BBC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.1 (Yoast SEO v18.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Government mulls reopening gas storage for winter - Tahrir News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/05\/30\/government-mulls-reopening-gas-storage-for-winter-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government mulls reopening gas storage for winter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The government is in talks with energy company Centrica about reopening a giant gas storage facility if European supplies from Russia are disrupted. 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