UK energy fears rise after Russia warns it may end gas discounts
CONCERNS about the security of the UK’s energy supply heightened over the weekend, as escalating political troubles in Ukraine cast uncertainty over gas shipments.
Ukraine provides a key pipeline for transporting Russian gas into Europe, but a bitter dispute over the country’s ties has led Russia to issue several warnings that Ukraine may lose a discount to the gas price it now pays, due to its outstanding debt. “It seems that with such gas payments and fulfilment of its obligations Ukraine may not keep its current gas discount. The gas discount agreement assumed full and timely payment,” a spokesman from Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom said.
A price rise would be devastating for heavily indebted Ukraine, and it is feared that this could interrupt exports to Europe, which gets a third of its gas from Russia. “The risk to our energy supply is low,” said a UK government spokesperson.
“We source our gas from a range of countries and have lots of gas in storage. Any short term spike in wholesale gas prices would have limited impact on people’s bills as gas suppliers can buy their gas months in advance of delivery.”