British Gas boss warns UK risks winter fuel shortage

British Gas boss warns UK risks winter fuel shortage

Chris Price

Thu, August 27, 2026 at 12:05 PM GMT+3 3 min read

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The boss of British Gas's owner has warned the UK risks fuel shortages this winter as stockpiles fall.

Chris O'Shea, the chief executive of Centrica, said Britain had "almost no gas in storage in the UK for the coming winter".

Mr O'Shea said low gas reserves in the UK were a "huge concern" and that the country had "for too long" relied on other countries for energy imports while underinvesting in storage and power plants.

Britain's gas facilities were around 30pc full this week, down from 46pc at the same time last year. They were more than 90pc full in the two years before that.

Gas levels are currently at the lowest level for August since records began, according to Bloomberg data.

It follows the dramatic fall in tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz during the Iran war, which usually accounts for a fifth of the world's oil and gas shipping.

Mr O'Shea wrote on LinkedIn: "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."

The low storage levels leave Britain more open to paying higher prices for shipments of energy.

European gas prices have doubled since the start of the Iran war.

Dutch TTF, the European gas benchmark, rose to more than €69 per megawatt hour on Tuesday, its highest level since March.

The jump in gas prices comes just a day after Ofgem increased its cap on energy prices by 4pc, putting average household gas and electricity bills at £1,723 a year.

Mr O'Shea urged the Government to clear a pathway for a proposed £2bn redevelopment of its 40-year-old Rough Field offshore gas storage facility.

He wants ministers to introduce a so-called "cap-and-floor" financing mechanism that would effectively mean guaranteed funding underwritten by a levy on consumer bills.

Rough represents half of Britain's gas storage capacity, but Centrica is losing £10m a month maintaining the facility.

Mr O'Shea said: "For too long we in the UK have relied on other countries to provide our energy security, underinvesting in gas-fired power generation and gas storage.

"The time is now upon us where we need to fix this. 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."

Mr O'Shea's warning comes after Norway's energy minister suggested Britain and Europe might no longer be able to rely on the Nordic country to keep a lid on energy prices.

Norway has previously presented itself as "the green battery" of Europe, exporting surplus renewable energy most years via cross-border power cables from an extensive network of hydroelectric plants.

It is also Europe's largest supplier of natural gas, meeting around 30pc of gas demand of both the EU and Britain.

However, Terje Aasland, Norway's energy minister, this week urged European countries to strengthen their own power supplies, which have been weakened by a lack of investment in new gas-fired generation.

Kathryn Porter, an energy analyst, said Norway's integration with Europe's power networks had left it "more vulnerable to continental price swings".

A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero 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."

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