Minister: UK must keep drilling for gas in North Sea

Britain must keep drilling for gas in the North Sea for “reasons of energy security”, the energy minister has said, as the Ukraine crisis fuels fears over Russian supplies to Europe, Report informs referring to The Times.

Greg Hands said that domestic production gave Britain an advantage compared with European neighbors that relied on Russia for a “huge part” of their gas. It was “important for us not to be increasing our gas imports” at “a time of energy security concerns”, he said.

Hands also vowed that the energy price cap was “here to stay”, despite calls from some suppliers to scrap the policy.

The UK produces about half of the gas it needs.

The occupancy of European underground gas storage facilities is at the lowest level in many years. The volume of reserves in UK UGS facilities is now about 0.85 billion cubic meters. The UK, at current withdrawal levels, is five weeks away from full stock depletion.