Gas Crisis: Imports from Belgium fall to 7 day low on Wednesday (23.4 mcm)

5.56.08pm GMT Thu 1st Dec 2005

John Hemming MP, the chair of the Independent Energy Scrutiny Panel, has written to Malcolm Wicks MP, Energy Minister, to raise concerns that the imports of gas via the Interconnector fell to 23.4mcm (260GWh) on Wednesday.

"People may think they don't have to worry because it is warm. We need to be building up imports and reinjecting into storage when it is warm. For that we need imports to be more like 43.4mcm/d rather than 23.4mcm/d."

"The government working with Ofgem needs to ensure that the market insures third party risk on interconnector imports. This is not something that can be left for a glacial parliamentary process to operate. We need action now to improve imports from Belgium."

ENDS

Note to Malcolm Wicks MP:

Imports from the Interconnector fell on Wednesday to 23.4 mcm. We really need an additional 20 mcm/d if we are to have the chance of surviving a cold spell. One way of improving imports is for the market to insure the risk of technical failure. Although we have a small breathing space, we only have a small breathing space and need to use this to build up stocks. This will not happen without the interconnector running full tilt.