![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/https:\/\/d1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net\/production\/55d0cec2-833c-49e0-a557-fb23201bcdf7.jpg\")
A LNG tanker arriving at the Isle of Grain terminal in Kent, England from the US \u00a9 Dan Kitwood\/Getty Images<\/p>\nStay informed with free updates<\/p>\n
Simply sign up to the UK energy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s domestic gas supplies are set to decline this winter as the country deepens its reliance on imports from around the world, according to the owner of its transmission network.\u00a0<\/p>\n
National Gas, which is owned by Macquarie, expects Britain to get 6 per cent less gas from UK offshore fields this winter compared with last, and 7 per cent more imported liquefied natural gas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It expects gas demand to be slightly lower, but storage supplies also to fall, meaning the net effect is overall tighter winter supply margins, akin to those seen in 2019-2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur margins for winter 2025\/2026 are tighter than we have seen in the last four years,\u201d the company said in its annual winter outlook, published on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is largely due to the well documented continued decline in supplies from the UK Continental Shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gas makes up 35 per cent of the UK\u2019s energy demand, but production from the North Sea basin has been steadily declining for years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Production reached its lowest level since 1973 last year, according to official government statistics, and fell 10 per cent between 2023 and 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The UK government is consulting on plans to stop issuing new exploration licences for new oil and gasfields, as part of its climate goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Norway, which sends gas to the UK through undersea pipelines, overtook Britain as the largest gas supplier in 2021. <\/p>\n
It is expected to account for around 36 per cent of Britain\u2019s gas supplies this winter, compared to 33 per cent from domestic production, and 24 per cent from the global LNG market.<\/p>\n
Supplies of LNG are the \u201ckey source to meet rising winter demand\u201d, National Gas said, given the flexibility of a market in which ships can be redirected at sea if they get a higher bid. <\/p>\n
A LNG tanker arriving at the Isle of Grain terminal in Kent, England from the US \u00a9 Dan Kitwood\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
The trend towards LNG means changes to the way National Gas runs its network, as it increasingly moves gas from LNG import terminals in Wales and southern England.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur system was designed to move gas primarily from Scotland,\u201d said Jon Butterworth, chief executive of National Gas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have diversity of supply, which is a good thing. But our systems have had to be adapted and reconfigured.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that while he had \u201cno worries\u201d about security of supply this winter, attention needed to be paid to managing gas supplies in future given the decline of North Sea production.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Butterworth added that the issue of cyber security \u201ckeeps me awake at night\u201d. The issue has risen up the agenda in Britain following a series of damaging attacks on companies including carmaker Jaguar Land Rover<\/a> and retailer Marks and Spencer<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe discuss it all the time at our board,\u201d he added. \u201cWe have got 40-plus of the cleverest people in cyber working for us directly.\u201d<\/p>\n Separately, in its outlook for electricity supplies this winter, the National Electricity System Operator said the growth of battery storage sites had contributed to the highest expected winter supply buffer since 2019\/2020. <\/p>\n However, it also cautioned there could be \u201csome tighter periods\u201d when the state-owned body might have to call on the market to increase supply at short notice. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK energy myFT Digest — delivered directly to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-187138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}