Britain has “almost no gas in storage in the UK for the coming winter”, the boss of British Gas’s owner has said as the UK risks facing a fuel shortage this winter.
The chief executive of Centrica, Chris O’Shea, said “time is rapidly running out” as winter approaches, in what he called a “huge concern” for energy and national security.
It comes as households across Britain already face skyrocketing bills, as the impact of Donald Trump’s war on Iran continues to hit energy prices.
Latest data shows there is 9356.6 GWh of natural gas storage, compared to 13635 GWh in the same period last year.
Writing on LinkedIn, Mr O’Shea said: “We have almost no gas in storage in the UK for the coming winter and this is a huge concern as energy security is national security.”
He was responding to a report that Norway’s energy minister said the country is no longer willing to be “the battery of Europe”.
“This is totally understandable,” Mr O’Shea said. For too long we in the UK have relied on other countries to provide our energy security, under investing in gas fired power generation and gas storage.
“The time is now upon us where we need to fix this.”
Mr O’Shea is calling on the government to support a £2bn redevelopment of its Rough Field offshore gas storage facility.
He said: “We stand ready to invest £2bn of our shareholders’ money to redevelop the Rough gas storage facility with the right regulatory support framework, but time is rapidly running out.”
A DESNZ spokesperson said: “We have a diverse energy mix and are confident in our security of supply. This includes gas from our own North Sea production, pipelines with Norway, interconnectors with Europe and three LNG terminals.
“The future of Rough storage is a commercial decision for Centrica, but we remain open to discussing proposals on all gas storage sites, as long as it provides value for money for taxpayers.”
The UK can only store around an estimated 5 per cent of its own annual total demand, relying heavily on imports. Natural gas accounts for around a third of the UK’s overall energy mix, with less than half of that being domestically sourced gas.
More than a third (35 per cent) comes from Norway, with the remainder being Liquified natural has (LNG) imports, notably from the US and Qatar, meaning this gas shortage may impact around 7 per cent of the UK’s total annual energy usage.
It comes as analysts warned Europe is facing a gas shortage this winter due to lower global production and reserves being run down due to the Iran war.
Liquified natural gas (LNG) is a key part of the overall energy mix for the UK and Europe. On the continent, natural gas as a whole accounts for around a fifth (21 per cent) of total energy consumption, according to Eurostat’s research, with LNG representing around 40 per cent of that gas usage in 2024.
An estimated 89 per cent of Europe’s overall gas supply in 2025 came from outside the EU - including the UK and analysts at Wood Mackenzie have cautioned that the continent “is approaching energy crisis territory.”
Research from the firm shows European inventory is “only just above 50 per cent, an historically low level” for this period of the year.
