UK has just two days of gas reserves – should we be worried?

LONDON: Britain has less than two days worth of gas in reserve, sparking fears of a looming energy crisis.

The UK has 6,700 GWh of gas stored up – equal to just 1.5 days of demand, according to new data published by National Gas.

A similar figure is sitting in tanks as liquefied natural gas, standing in stark contrast to the weeks-worth of reserves European countries have built up.

It means the UK is now paying the highest wholesale gas prices in Europe as supplies from the Middle East dry up.

The crunch has led experts to warn that British households will be hit by a boom in energy prices.

The government, however, is clear that the UK’s gas supply will not be disrupted by the halt to oil tankers in the Gulf.

Oil supply shock

The conflict in the Middle East has seen oil tankers travelling through the Strait of Hormuz – south of the Iranian coast – grind to a standstill.

The result, according to Goldman Sachs, has been a shock 17 times larger than Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The bank said in a note on Friday: ‘We now think that oil prices would likely exceed $100 next week if no signs of solutions emerge by then.

‘We now also think it’s likely that oil prices, especially for refined products, would exceed the 2008 and 2022 peaks, if Strait of Hormuz flows were to remain depressed throughout March.’

The UK could be particularly vulnerable to these price hikes on the international market because it cannot rely on withdrawing gas from storage.

Britain once had 12-days worth of storage and 18,000 GWh units last year.

On Friday, gas stores were at just 18 per cent of their former strength, whereas liquid natural gas reserves were a little over half full.

The price of gas in the UK has already increased by more than anywhere in Europe, Natasha Fielding, head of gas pricing at Argus Media told The Telegraph.

She added: ‘We can’t rely on withdrawing more from storage, so we have to get that gas from abroad.’

Where the UK gets its gas from

The government is trying to calm fears, emphasising the fact that just 1 per cent of the UK’s gas supply in 2025 came from Qatar.

National Gas also clarified that most of its gas comes from Norway and its own North Sea.

Prices are also set in stone until the start of July, due to the energy price cap, which is the maximum rate you can be charged by your energy company for default tariffs.

In fact, the price cap will fall by 7 per cent, or £117, annually for the period covering April to June.

The UK relies on the price of oil and gas as determined by international markets.

This means that if the price of gas internationally rises, so could bills in the UK.

A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: ‘We are confident in our security of gas supply. We are working with industry to ensure the gas system is fit for the future, including maintaining security of supply.’