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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Nils Pratley

Take Centrica’s gas storage warning seriously – Britain still needs secure supplies

A man in hi-viz on the Rough gas storage platform in the North Sea
The Rough gas storage platform, off the Yorkshire coast. Centrica has warned it will close the facility unless it receives long-term support. Photograph: PA Images/Alamy

Welcome to the energy secretary job, Miatta Fahnbulleh. You have a politically tricky decision to make on whether to approve production at the Jackdaw gasfield and the Rosebank oilfield. But here’s another one that can’t wait much longer: what is the broader plan to ensure Britain avoids a gas supply crisis in 2030?

By way of reminder, one of the more alarming reports published by the energy department under Ed Miliband was the one that warned of “an emerging risk” to gas supplies at the turn of the decade if an important piece of kit – an import terminal, say, or the critical 725-mile Langeled pipeline from Norway – were to be out of the action during a severe cold snap.

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