Speeches

Viscount Waverley – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Viscount Waverley on 2016-06-27.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether gas supplies to the UK are secure and will remain competitively priced following the vote to leave the EU, and what contingency plans they have in place; what percentage of UK gas supplies originate from Russia; and what assessment they have made of whether the devaluation of sterling against the rouble following the vote to leave the EU will adversely affect gas prices.

Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

Energy security is my top priority. The Department will take the steps needed to ensure hard working families and business have the energy they need, including from overseas where this adds to the diversity and cost effectiveness of our energy supplies.

The UK has high levels of gas security from a diverse supply mix including storage facilities; pipelines from Norway, Netherlands and Belgium; and LNG terminals. This is in addition to domestic production which met over half our annual demand of 773TWh in 2014. Gas shippers in the UK purchase gas from hubs across Europe without HMG intervention in a competitive market.