Centrica given go-ahead to increase capacity at storage site

Britain’s Competition Commission allowed gas producer Centrica to increase the share of capacity it can buy at its own huge North Sea Rough storage site in the 2012-13 gas year to 25 per cent from 15 per cent, the body said. In January the authority had provisionally rejected the utility’s bid to relax rules, also called undertakings, dating from 2003 on operating Britain’s largest gas storage site in a way that did not infringe competition laws.

But the body agreed yesterday to allow Centrica to increase its participation in buying storage capacity at the site and take part in its primary sales process during the 12-month period starting October 2012, as the company starts to make plans for gas purchases over that time. “Centrica Storage welcomes the increased flexibility that the final decision brings and are now working with the Competition Commission to amend the current undertakings to reflect these changes,” a spokesman for Centrica said.

The parties continue to review the possibility of making the capacity purchase allowance permanent. Rough, which can cover around 10 per cent of Britain’s peak-day gas demand, is in the North Sea around 30 km off the east coast of Yorkshire.