The UK Will Have Enough Natural Gas For The Summer

• The UK will have enough natural gas to meet summer demand, with most of the supply coming from the UK North Sea and Norway.
• The UK is anticipating sending gas to Europe, although demand for exports is likely to be lower than last year.
• The summer period in the UK tends to be a period of lower demand due to warmer weather.

The UK will have enough natural gas supply to meet demand this summer, with supply coming mostly from the UK North Sea and Norway, supplemented by LNG imports, the UK’s National Gas Transmission said in its Summer Outlook 2023.

Moreover, National Gas Transmission expects to see sustained flows of gas from the UK into Europe this summer.

“We are anticipating that the NTS could again be used as a transit for gas flows going into Europe, however, we don’t expect demand for exports from GB will be as high as it was last year,” the company said.

Yet, it is unclear what level of exports we will see going to the EU over the summer, according to the report.

Last summer saw record levels of UK gas exports to the EU via the interconnectors due to the low storage stocks across the EU at the end of the 2021/2022 winter and supply concerns after Russia started to slash exports via pipelines to Europe, National Gas Transmission said.

This summer, the outlook looks brighter, at least for now, thanks to the high level of gas stockpiles in Europe at the end of this winter. 

“There are hints of greater stability in the energy market going forward as price differentials narrow and forward price curves reduce,” Ian Radley, System Operations Director at National Gas Transmission, said in the report.

The summer period – from April to September – tends to be a period when the UK sees lower demand on the National Transmission System (NTS) due to warmer weather, as people require less gas to heat their homes.

In a separate report today, the UK’s National Grid ESO said it expects there would be sufficient available supply to meet demand at all times this summer.

“We expect to be able to support exports to neighbouring European countries if needed, continuing the close-working and coordinated support with our neighbouring Transmission System Operators from last summer and winter,” National Grid said in its 2023 Summer Outlook.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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