Is the United Kingdom facing a natural gas shortage?

A cold spell facing the United Kingdom has caused anxiety over the security of the country’s natural gas supplies. The Conservative Party warns that a gas shortage [conservatives.com] is about to hit the UK due to a lack of storage capacity. In response, National Grid, owner of the UK gas transmission system, states that there is “no danger of the UK running short of gas”.

Anxiety increased when National Grid gave a gas balancing alert, asking power suppliers to use less natural gas, a message which was repeated again last Thursday.

In this post, I explain some of the issues underlying the current UK natural gas situation, including a growing long-term mismatch between the supply that the United Kingdom can itself provide, and UK customer demand.

http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6113