Gas imports reached a record quarterly high in the first three months of 2021 following a fall in gross production, the latest government figures have revealed.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) latest energy trends report show that net imports of gas increased by 38 per cent after the pandemic saw delays to maintenance work last year, resulting in production being down 14 per cent on Q1 2020.
Pipeline imports increased by 83 per cent and imports from Belgium and the Netherlands were the highest they have been since 2018, when cold temperatures from the ‘Beast from the East’ drove notably increased demand. Imports from Norwegian pipelines were also up 34 per cent following low imports last year.
Overall Q1 saw UK demand for natural gas up 8.1 per cent, to 292TWh – largely a result of increased demand for electricity generation. Lower wind speeds compared to last year drove a 17 per cent increase in demand for gas in electricity generation.
Colder weather and more people working from home saw domestic demand for gas rise 10 per cent to 137 TWh, the highest level since Q1 2018 (144TWh). Industrial demand however was down 2.2 per cent as restrictions continued to curtail industrial output.
While imports of liquid natural gas (LNG) were substantial, they were down a fifth compared to the previous year when near record highs were recorded. Conversely, imports from Russia reached a record high at 17 TWh, around eight per cent of total imports.
Elsewhere demand for electricity was down 3 per cent while total generation decreased by 4.2 per cent.
Covid restrictions on businesses and industry saw total consumption of electricity by end users down 2.8 per cent to 76.6 TWh. However domestic consumption saw a big increase in the quarter, up 8.4 per cent to the highest value since Q1 2013.
This again reflects Covid restrictions which saw more people spending more time at home, as well as lower than average temperatures increasing the electricity demand for heating.
During the quarter nuclear capacity was reduced by maintenance outages at all but one of the UK’s nuclear power stations. In total generation from nuclear fell to 11.6 TWh which is 12 per cent lower than the previous year.