- UK Looking to Other Countries for Gas Supply – May
United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Theresa May, said on Wednesday that the UK was “looking to other countries” for gas supply due to deteriorating relations with Russia triggered by the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal in the UK.
May was asked in the UK Parliament by a Conservative lawmaker, Stephen Crabb, whether she agreed that the UK “should not provide a market for Russian gas,” according to Platts.
She said, “Can I reassure (you) that when we are looking at our gas supplies, we are looking to other countries.”
Crabb also suggested that if the UK needed additional LNG imports it should instead look to “allies such as Qatar, Malaysia and Australia who are more than willing to sell it to us.”
The UK is less dependent than much of Europe on direct Russian gas supplies, but it does buy gas from Gazprom Export and Gazprom’s UK-based trading arm Gazprom Marketing & Trading.
For instance, UK utility Centrica has a long-term contract with GMT for the supply of an average of 4.2 Bcm a year of gas.
