Forums Forums National News Gas running out

It seems the UK has a gas supply problem and we could run out of gas today!

What bloomin' useless Governments we have, they are supposed to ensure we have a solid infrastructure and gas is not the hardest of things to manage.

The irony is that many Wirral gasometers have been demolished recently because they store in the pipes now, another half-baked plan that has gone to pot.

Of course, having our energy suppliers owned by foreign countries doesn't help, their priority is the extraction of money not the supply of gas.

Its not like we have had a bad winter, what would have happened if we had another 1985 winter. I guess this has partly been brought on by the number of gas powered electricity generators we now use, electricity is something else we are going to be short of in the next few years (or today if the gas runs out!).

All we need now is for Russia to pull the plug on their gas supplies and we are done for, recreating the cold war has done nothing for our stability.

And why not blame the government for the cold weather whilst you're at it ?

This could be leverage to frack. The logic being it is already in storage underground and can be manipulated virtually at will. Not a fan but just saying.

The country's infrastructure is one of the Government's prime functions, they should set the reserves of gas to be held. Relying on pipelines that go through multiple other countries that are also short of gas can hardly be a substitute for reserves.

If the Government could and were allowed to control the weather then that would also be under their jurisdiction to get right.

The Government are our servants to administrate national things.

I am very pleased to see the end of the stupid gasholders. Ugly, expensive, inefficient, and inadequate in terms of storing enough gas, they are better replaced by increasing the pressure in the gas mains and a few high-pressure tanks.

As to blaming the government or anyone else for the lack of gas, I suggest you wait for it to happen. The point is we DIDN'T run out of gas, so perhaps they got it right. Overprovision would be a waste of money.

Over provisioning saves money. The wholesale price was triple the price it was a month or so ago. The energy companies have said they will pass the rise in cost on to the customers. This is probably a tactical manoeuvre because the government are probably introducing an energy cap this year.

One day of reserves of gas is absolutely silly, they got it wrong. The first thing they switch off if they are about to run out is the gas powered electricity generators.

Over-provisioning CAN save money. It can also lose it. It depends on when the gas it contains is bought. From that point of view, it is probably financially neutral over a long term.

Unfortunately, providing the storage facilities to contain it costs money too, in construction costs as well as maintenance and administration. You really don't want to overprovide, and I imagine the level of provision will anticipate a "one in 500 years" running-out event or some suitable figure.

There is also the effect of global warming of course. Despite the current cold snap, winters are a lot warmer in recent years an the effect looks set to accelerate.

Finally, the government would be far better employed in reducing the amount of gas needed by putting money into extra insulation. The more gas we burn the more CO2 we put into the atmosphere.Sadly, this so-called government decided to cut the 'red tape' forcing new build houses to be properly insulated! No doubt the gas companies are generous contributors to the Conservative party!

I know this is the silly type of thing this Government would do but I'd like to have a reference to that? The only change I am aware of was the 2006/7 change which basically went from measuring individual elements of the house to the overall efficiency of the house which gave a bit more flexibility to designs.

"Rough" a depleted gas/oil field positioned in The North Sea was converted into a storage facility 1985 . This was closed down by Centrica against industry advice. The storage was 70% of Britain's stored capacity at the time of closure. The principle was to buy cheap in the summer and use in the winter keeping prices stable.Once again we will pay for bad management decisions with our depleted cash reserves. (Centrica is British Gas)

"Rough" was unsafe due to its age when they started to use it for storage and it carried on deteriorating. Other attempts at converting other old gas wells to storage have been too inefficient.

Platforms are laid up all over the place. One or two should be converted for future storage. The mild winters and World recession made them uneconomical, the principle is sound. The price for doing nothing, will over the years cost more and a big freeze or disagreement with the wrong one could bankrupt the country. Now Rough is closed the other two Baird and Deborough could pay their way.