What International Gas Market, Mr Miliband?

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

You may have seen Ed Miliband’s car crash interview with Sky the other day, where he insisted that gas prices are set internationally by petro state dictators.

Maybe he could explain why UK gas prices are five times those in the US!

Heaven help us when a senior Minister does not appear to understand the very simple laws of supply and demand.

Natural gas, contrary to his naively simplistic beliefs, cannot simply be traded anywhere in the world. Much of the world’s production flows through pipelines and is therefore geographically limited in where it can be sold.

Gas can, of course, be shipped as LNG; but there are constraints in terms of the LNG export capacity available in producing countries, the amount of shipping, and the storage facilities available in importing countries.

If you want to bring UK gas prices down, you would start by increasing domestic production, not trying to ban it, as Miliband is.