Offshore Energies Magazine - Winter 2022/23

News

could save another 2 GW. But it warns that it is highly likely that the wholesale price of gas and electricity will remain very high. It has planned for extreme cases when energy crises in Europe might mean no available power imports for the UK. This could result from nuclear outages in France, or gas supply failures either side of The Channel. But if the security situation in Europe worsens, both gas and power customers are at risk of losing supply. National Grid sees gas demand destruction continuing to rise across all sectors in response to high prices, but mostly from industry where demand is elastic. LNG has been the primary source of supply flexibility this year supplementing UK and Norwegian supplies in the almost complete absence of the Dutch swing field, Groningen and very little underground storage. UK and continental gas prices have disconnected this year, owing to bottlenecks in the interconnectors. The NBP day-ahead price even fell to 23 p/th October 18, as there was not enough capacity to take it out of the grid as fast as the gas was arriving. And it was 10 p/th on June 9. There was plenty of wind, the weather was mild and there is very little storage capacity in the UK.

to an in-person event was very welcome, after the steady stream of online events since 2019. Financing energy transition and carbon capture and storage projects featured, along with more familiar topics: decommissioning, the new engineering contract and international arbitration, with some role playing. Professor Greg Gordon, speaking at the dinner, remarked on the concerns of younger lawyers about the longevity of traditional oil and gas practice in what is sometimes portrayed as a twilight industry. OEUK would like to thank again the organising committee and all our speakers, and particularly our sponsors: Gilson Gray, CMS, Clyde & Co and Norton Rose Fulbright. Gridwarns of cuts Preparing for a difficult six months ahead in its annual Winter Outlook , National Grid has saved about 2 GW of coal-fired generation capacity from closure to meet winter power demand. It has also introduced demand flexibility service to allow customers to bid in demand cuts when margins are tight. That

plans and to look at how they might go further and faster wherever possible. The licensing of Rough to reopen as a storage facility in an accelerated process is another example of improved security of supply. The opening of the licensing round follows the publication of the Climate Compatibility Checkpoint and the Strategic Environmental Assessment. It is expected that the first licences will be awarded from the second quarter of 2023. The outgoing CEOof NSTAAndy Samuel said: “Security of supply and net zero should not be in conflict. The industry has committed to halving upstream emissions by 2030 and investing heavily in electrification, carbon storage and hydrogen.” Legal conference breaks ground The September legal conference – the seventh, not counting two webinars from the Covid lockdown period – drew some 140 delegates to Ardoe House, Aberdeen. It was the first under the OEUK brand and it welcomed two King’s Counsels. The return

Dirk Rhyn

8 O E U K M a g a z i n e | W i n t e r 2 0 2 2

Made with FlippingBook Ebook Creator