Centrica to re-open Rough gas storage?

[dan_b]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... for-winter

Well that's a surprise. I thought it was so expensive to upgrade/repair that the poor Centrica shareholders couldn't possibly have been expected to bear that burden?

[Oldgreybeard]

Rough closed for economic reasons, dressed up to be safety issues. The problems stem from the age of the well head infrastructure, I believe, much of which dates back to the 1960s and 70s. The cost of keeping that equipment safe and functional, for what was a pretty modest income stream at the time, didn't stack up. There was no reason for the company to keep Rough operational, from their perspective, so they closed it.

Arguably the government should have stepped in, given the strategic importance of gas storage, but they chose not to. Now the price of gas has risen, and given that the UK is currently importing LNG, gasifying it and then selling it to Europe via pipelines, there is money to be made from having storage.