Mark then links to the Remittance Man who has this rebuttal:
"It is a basic truth in the minerals industry that the best place to keep stuff until it is needed is exactly where one finds it - in the ground. By doing so one incurs little or no expense and one does not expose one's supplies to a whole host of risks ranging from terrorism to accidental explosion.
According to this site, the breakdown of proved natural gas reserves in Europe is as follows:
| Country | Proved Reserves (cu m) |
| Norway | 2,288,000,000,000 |
| Netherlands | 1,684,000,000,000 |
| Ukraine | 1,075,000,000,000 |
| United Kingdom | 509,200,000,000 |
| France | 341,000,000,000 |
| Germany | 246,500,000,000 |
| Italy | 217,300,000,000 |
| Poland | 158,100,000,000 |
| Romania | 96,410,000,000 |
| Denmark | 75,660,000,000 |
| Hungary | 32,860,000,000 |
| Croatia | 27,160,000,000 |
| Austria | 14,390,000,000 |
| Slovakia | 14,390,000,000 |
| Ireland | 9,505,000,000 |
| Georgia | 8,147,000,000 |
| Bulgaria | 5,703,000,000 |
| Czech Republic | 3,802,000,000 |
| Belarus | 2,716,000,000 |
| Spain | 2,444,000,000 |
| Greece | 950,500,000 |
| Albania | 814,700,000 |
Britain's sources of natural gas are her own reserves and Norway. France and Germany have much smaller reserves and hence rely on supplies from elsewhere, much of which come from countries that can be described as less than stable.
Basically our continental chums find themselves in a very different position to Britain when it comes to managing their natural gas supplies: they use more and have to buy it from places whose reputation for reliability is not of the best. The result of this is that they need man-made storage facilities to act as a buffer against disruptions of flow, Britain does not.
As for the price issue, it matters not whether the gas is stored in massive big tanks or is left underground. The price the consumer pays is determined at the time of use based on the ruling spot price, or a contract price. Indeed if the country were to follow Mr Clark's implied suggestion and maintained a four month buffer stock Brits could realistically expect prices to rise on account of the additional capital and storage costs his proposal would entail.
I can understand lay people and journalists failing to understand this and hence getting into a tizzy, but Mr Clark is the man who hopes to manage Britain's energy policy after the next election. That being so, one would expect that he would have a better grasp of the realities of the energy sector than he has displayed with this outburst." (my emphasis)
As for the price issue, it matters not whether the gas is stored in massive big tanks or is left underground. The price the consumer pays is determined at the time of use based on the ruling spot price, or a contract price. Indeed if the country were to follow Mr Clark's implied suggestion and maintained a four month buffer stock Brits could realistically expect prices to rise on account of the additional capital and storage costs his proposal would entail.
I can understand lay people and journalists failing to understand this and hence getting into a tizzy, but Mr Clark is the man who hopes to manage Britain's energy policy after the next election. That being so, one would expect that he would have a better grasp of the realities of the energy sector than he has displayed with this outburst." (my emphasis)
Paraphrasing H.L. Mencken, "Before this man (Clark) speaks it is always safe to assume that he is a fool. After he speaks, it is seldom necessary to assume it".
2 comments:
From Business and Enterprise Select Committee: Eleventh Report of Session 2007-08:
"Gas storage
12. The Government has not responded quickly enough to the UK’s increasing, and entirely predictable, gas import dependency by encouraging investment in storage.
This is an issue our predecessor Committee raised in its 2002 and 2005 Reports on security of supply and fuel prices. Significant additional storage, beyond that currently planned, is needed to reduce volatility in the wholesale gas price, which is otherwise likely to increase as the UK becomes increasingly dependent on gas imports.
It is now an issue of national importance and should be a high priority in domestic energy policy. (Paragraph 29)"
This may be so, however the comment misses the point that instead of concentrating on the lack of storage it should be dealing with the increased dependency on gas at the expense of nuclear or clean coal.
The matter is further compounded by the government's headlong rush to rely on wind turbine, complying with EU requirements and over which it has no control,
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