UK considers reopening gas storage facility to ease energy crisis

The UK government is currently in discussions about reopening the country’s largest gas storage facility to help ease the energy crisis, after previously claiming it wasn’t necessary to do so.

Government ministers are holding talks with Centrica – the parent company of British Gas – about reopening the Rough storage facility just off the coast of Yorkshire. The huge gas storage facility was shut down in 2017 after government subsidies were put on hold, but it still has the potential to store up to nine days’ worth of the UK’s gas demands.

The talks are part of contingency plans that are currently being drawn up by the government in response to the ongoing global energy crisis. It is hoped that by reopening the storage facility, the country as well as the rest of Europe will be less reliant on Russian gas imports this coming winter and this would help to prevent any possible power outages.

These talks represent a dramatic U-turn for the government, who have previously claimed that there was no longer any use for the facility as the UK aims to achieve net zero in the coming years. However, the ongoing war in Ukraine has increased the risk of shortages and power cuts, and the government now believe they need a backup plan.

The government has also claimed that the facility could be adapted to be more sustainable in the future, for example being repurposed as a hydrogen storage facility.

A government source told inews: “There is ironically a glut of gas in the UK so it might now be a good idea for us to be able to store it.  At the moment all we can do is export it to the continent straight away. We are effectively being used as a front door to Europe for US and Qatari gas, there is an armada of tankers trying to get in.”

These new plans come just days after it was announced by energy supplier EDF that it was already too late to not shutdown the Hinkley Point B nuclear power plant by the end of July. The government had hoped to delay the closure of this controversial power station to help get the UK through the winter.

However, despite this setback, the government is still confident that there won’t be any blackouts whatsoever in the UK over the coming months. A spokesperson for No 10 said: “I think you would expect Government to look at a range of scenarios to ensure plans are robust, no matter how unlikely they are to pass. Neither the Government or National Grid expect power cuts this winter.”