Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-04-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, as part of their package of sanctions towards Russia, they intend to instruct Centrica to cancel their agreement with Gazprom to supply the United Kingdom with gas; and if so, what will be the consequences for United Kingdom gas supplies and energy prices.

Baroness Verma

The international community has sent a clear, strong, consistent message to Russia. The sanctions we have imposed to date are having an impact. The European Council is clear that it will respond with further wide-ranging measures if there is any further destabilisation in Ukraine by Russia.

The contract between Gazprom and Centrica is a commercial matter. It relates to a small part of total gas supply to the UK. While the contract is with a Russian company, the gas can be sourced from anywhere in the European network. The UK is not dependent on Russian energy imports and this contract does not alter that.