Seasonal gas storage levels are at their lowest on record, leaving a “huge concern” over Britain’s energy security in the coming months, a top industry figure has said.
Chris O’Shea, the CEO of Centrica — which owns British Gas — has sounded the alarm on the bare cupboard of energy security Britain has to fall back on going into winter. The United Kingdom already has a comparatively small national bunkering capability for natural gas — and the government has proven astonishingly reluctant to change this, despite opportunity and the importance of natural gas to the country — and even this would-be stockpile is at historically low levels, he says.
In normal times, gas reserves are topped up during summer from surplus domestic production and imports when demand is low and prices are cheap, holding that stock to burn in winter when demand is greater and global prices concomitantly higher. This year, gas reserves have dwindled and there is little sign yet that storage will be filled for winter.
Posting to social media in response to warnings European states will be less able to fall back on Norway’s energy surplus to meet their own demand in future, O’Shea wrote “We have almost no gas in storage in the UK for the coming winter and this is a huge concern as energy security is national security.”
Citing Bloomberg industry data, The Daily Telegraph reported present British gas reserves between stored natural gas and liquid natural gas that can later be “regasified” for use in either generating electricity or providing home heat and cooking, strand at just 31 per cent full.
This compares to the same point in August in 2025 when it was — already in a time of energy crisis — at 47 per cent. Every other year before then, gas reserves had either hit 100 per cent by this time of the year, or were on their way there and would be topped off within weeks.
If the energy use profile of the rest of 2026 matches that of 2025, with little imports feeding into the reserve system through Autumn and even only moderate use through a notably mild winter, it is possible reserves could trend towards zero by the start of Spring. Historic data shows when gas imports are flowing, the bunkers can be filled extremely quickly, but this relies on a global surplus ready to be bought, and the price mechanism is presently signalling that isn’t there.
With European gas prices spiking, rushing to get Britain’s reserves filled now could cost over £1.9 billion at today’s prices, steep costs that would inevitably be eventually passed onto consumers when they buy that surge-priced energy come winter.
While Britain’s gas reserve being less than half full is part of the problem energy company boss O’Shea identifies, the businessman also pointed to the fact that Britain’s total capacity is simply insufficient, and the government remains obstinately against improving the picture. Comparison with other major European economies underlines the sheer scale of this problem: as previously reported, even fully filled Britain can only hold reserve gas to keep the country going for two weeks or so in an emergency.
Germany, on the other hand, can hold 89 days and France can hold over 100.
Centrica has tried to work with government to rectify this, bringing back online a large mothballed gas holding facility, Rough, in 2022. Itself a former natural gas field that was depleted, and then converted into storage, it is so large Rough Gas alone accounts for some 70 per cent of all Britain’s holding capacity.
Yet the facility is old and needs modernising, which was a contributing factor to it shutting in 2017 in the first place. Self-evidently critical national infrastructure, Centrica has been calling on government to work with it to get the facility future-ready for over a decade, yet it appears buttressing Britain’s gas backbone is at odds with Whitehall’s net zero obsession.
O’Shea wrote: “For too long we in the UK have relied on other countries to provide our energy security, under investing in gas fired power generation and gas storage. The time is now upon us where we need to fix this. We stand ready to invest £2bn of our shareholders’ money to redevelop the Rough gas storage facility with the right regulatory support framework, but time is rapidly running out.”
Today, the Rough Gas storage facility is completely empty, with no gas held for winter.
The Telegraph report notes a government spokesman denied — in their usual way when concerns about the country’s energy security or the wisdom of the rushed decarbonisation strategy are aired — there was any reason for concern about the levels of gas holdings. They said: “We have a diverse energy mix and are confident in our security of supply. This includes gas from our own North Sea production, pipelines with Norway, interconnectors with Europe and three LNG terminals.
“The future of Rough storage is a commercial decision for Centrica, but we remain open to discussing proposals on all gas storage sites, as long as it provides value for money for taxpayers.”
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