UK gas prices rise only 23 percent on Tuesday, after they quadrupled on Monday

UK wholesale gas prices have risen 23% to 230p a therm after supply troubles forced National Grid to ask industrial users to limit their usage.

On Monday prices had quadrupled after a fire shut the UK’s main storage facility and the recent cold snap made domestic usage soar.

If the situation gets worse, industrial users could see supplies cut off.

“This is as close as the UK has got to a national gas emergency,” said the Energy Intensive User Group.

“Supplies would effectively be rationed to industry to keep supplies maintained to households,” warned the group’s director Jeremy Nicholson.

“The spiralling costs of energy are increasingly eating into companies’ ability to compete, and with prices this high, some heavily energy-dependent firms could be forced to shut down or shut down production,” said CBI director-general Sir Digby Jones.

BBC