UK Gas Market Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Matthew Offord
Main Page: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)Department Debates - View all Matthew Offord's debates with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
(2 years, 7 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Kwasi Kwarteng
The hon. Gentleman is right to raise that issue. Clearly, to have interconnectors fail in the way they did last week, in the midst of a global gas price spike, is very concerning. We are looking at what went wrong and seeing what we can do with National Grid to hold it to account and to make sure that the risk of this happening again is minimised.
Dr Matthew Offord (Hendon) (Con)
The rise in the wholesale price of gas began back in January, with it rising by 250% since then. Why did no one in the Department anticipate this scenario?
Kwasi Kwarteng
We have anticipated many scenarios. I alluded to the fact that the oil price went from about $20 a barrel to $80 a barrel within just one year, and we have always been aware that commodity prices, particularly where demand can be very volatile, can be extremely volatile indeed. We look at that on a very regular basis.