Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland: Energy Supply Shortfalls Debate
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Lord Lennie
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Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland: Energy Supply Shortfalls
Lord Lennie Excerpts(1 year, 5 months ago)
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Lord Callanan (Con)
The Rough facility is working again, which was a commercial decision taken by the operators. The noble Lord is right about the overall quantity of supply but, of course, the countries he mentioned have no indigenous supplies of their own. We are very fortunate that some 40% of our supplies come from the North Sea.
Lord Lennie (Lab)
My Lords, with the uncertainties that exist around gas supply and demand this winter and, given that 84% of supply to Northern Ireland comes through the Moffat pipeline from Scotland, can the Minister assure the House that sufficient contingencies are in place between the UK and Irish Governments to meet any significant variations in demand or supply?
Lord Callanan (Con)
I refer the noble Lord back to the Answer that I gave to the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie. We are of course extremely concerned about the upcoming winter. Many emergency drills have been held and we are in close contact with operators both in Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland. I am pleased to say that co-operation is very good.