Russian Gas

Lord Hannay of Chiswick Excerpts

Thursday 8th May 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, my noble friend is absolutely right. The report will be considered fully but we agree with my noble friend that shale gas will play a huge part if it can be explored properly and we get from it the full potential that we expect.

[Lord Hannay of Chiswick (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that one area of increasing energy security involves increased gas storage? Can she say whether the Government are giving any attention to that? Does she recognise that the United Kingdom’s position on gas storage is much weaker than the positions of most other member states, particularly Germany, and that if we are to be less open to blackmail from outside, increased gas storage will have to be part of the equation?

[Baroness Verma]

My Lords, I do not agree with the noble Lord. We have significant gas storage in place. Two units have recently been completed and two are in the process of being built. We have more than enough gas available to us. We should not underestimate the amount of dependency that we have on our own sources to be able to provide energy for our country.