Highlights
- UK natural gas prices jumped 25 per cent on Thursday after Iran attacked Qatar's Ras Laffan liquefied natural gas field.
- More than 20 fixed energy deals have been removed from the market in the past three weeks.
- The energy price cap is expected to rise to around £1,827 in July according to Cornwall Insight.
Britain buys a lot of its natural gas from abroad and after a cold winter Europe is expected to have less gas stored than usual. Government figures from 2024 show that natural gas made up 33 per cent of the UK's total energy supply.
More than 20 fixed energy deals have been taken off the market by energy companies in the past three weeks as the cost of buying gas goes up. The energy price cap is expected to go up to around £1,827 in July.
Oil prices spike
Oil prices also went up sharply with Brent crude rising around 7 per cent to cross $114 a barrel on Thursday morning getting close to its highest point since the conflict started at the end of February.
Trade minister Chris Bryant stated that the situation had become a "really big moment for the UK economy" and called for a bigger push towards clean energy.
He said chancellor Rachel Reeves would look at what could be done about the fuel duty cap adding: "The biggest message I take away from everything that's happening in the Gulf is we need to make sure that we are not so dependent on oil and gas prices."
Think tank Common Wealth said household energy bills could fall by £200 if gas was no longer used to set electricity prices and called on the government to change how the electricity market works.
Ralston added: "British wind and solar farms lower our dependence on foreign gas and British wind power lowered wholesale prices by a third last year. These are permanent solutions."
Trump said he "knew nothing" of Israel's strike on Iran's South Pars gas field but warned he would "massively blow up" the field if Iran attacked Qatar's facilities again.
Qatar Energy had already stopped producing LNG at its sites at the start of the month after earlier attacks on its facilities.
