UK: Energy firms to raise bills yet again

Energy companies are preparing to slap hard-pressed households with a second massive hike in utility bills this year. Bills could start rising again in the summer by as much as 25 per cent, or an average


Last week senior Norwegian energy executives also warned government officials and regulator Ofgem that they do not see the UK as a priority for exporting gas. Norway supplies about one-fifth of the gas consumed in this country. With North Sea reserves dwindling, the UK is facing having to import about half of its gas from countries such as Norway and Russia by 2010.

At the Energy Markets Outlook seminar hosted by Ofgem and the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Berr), executive vice president Thor Otto Lohne of Norwegian pipeline company Gassco said that long-term contracts to supply mainland Europe meant the UK could not always rely on Norwegian gas exports, regardless of the price we were prepared to pay. ‘The UK is a secondary priority. Like it or not, that is a fact,’ he said.

Guardian