The current gas year, commencing 1 October, has seen record UK imports through the Interconnector pipeline.
The flow changed direction to UK imports in early October, and in the past 2 months has physically imported a net 8,600 GWh of gas. This comfortably exceeds the previous record for the period when a net of 6,000 GWh was imported during October and November 2004.
The start of December has seen continuing high UK import rates, and the usual speculation in the market about both the winter weather to come and the UK supply situation.
Supply capacity to the UK from interconnectors, upstream production, LNG and storage far exceeds peak demand leading to variable asset utilisation.
Last year, the start of the gas year saw Interconnector exporting record volumes of gas allowing an oversupply to be exported to continental markets.
This year, the situation has completely changed with gas from the continent making up a significant proportion of overall UK supply.
The Interconnector, being a highly flexible asset linking the UK and continental European gas markets, enables customers to respond quickly to these changing supply patterns.
[mappress] LNG World News Staff, December 04, 2012; Image: Interconnector