Great Britain could stop supplying gas to Europe in winter

Great Britain plans to stop supplying gas to mainland Europe if the country is hit by extreme shortages in the coming months, it has emerged.

The National Grid could cut off gas pipelines to the Netherlands and Belgium under emergency measures as Russia's invasion of Ukraine puts pressure on global energy supplies.

Interconnectors shutting off the pipelines would be part of a four-step plan that would include cutting supplies to big industrial users and asking consumers to reduce their household consumption, according to the Financial Times.

Ministers have been trying to shore up Great Britain's energy supplies despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia has ramped up pressure on other European nations by cutting their gas supplies in response to a rush to fill up European storage caverns before the winter.

Since March, 75 m cubic metres of gas per day has been transported to the European mainland by the two undersea interconnectors that link Great Britain with Belgium and the Netherlands.

Britain has healthy amounts of gas supplies, including liquified natural gas imports, but low storage capacity.

Investec analyst Nathan Piper said that the interconnectors play an important role in European energy security, allowing LNG volumes to be transported into European storage in the summer that allow volumes to be sent back to the UK, where storage is limited through the winter months. European gas companies have warned that shutting off the pipelines could backfire on the UK.

Bart Jan Hoevers, the president of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas, told the FT: "I would definitely recommend that the UK reconsider stopping the interconnection in the event of a crisis. While it is beneficial for the continent in the summer, it is also beneficial for the UK in the winter. As part of other measures to ensure energy supplies through the winter, business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, has struck a deal to extend the life of a coal plant in Nottinghamshire and hopes to land similar agreements with two more plants.

The British Gas owner, Centrica, signed a major supply deal with the Norwegian state oil company, Equinor earlier this month, to deliver enough gas for the next three years to heat 4.5 million extra homes a month.

Centrica is in talks with the government to reopen Britain's biggest gas storage site Rough, off the east coast of England which was shut in 2017.

Jonathan Mills, who was previously in government as a director of energy strategy, was appointed the director general of winter resilience earlier this month, according to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.