Disruptor brand Outfox the Market has applied to become its own gas shipper after being spurred on by the demise of CNG, the company has told Utility Week.
A notification of the application, submitted under the name Foxglove Energy Supply, was published by Ofgem on Thursday (11 November).
Speaking to Utility Week, the head of the retailer Ken Bastian said the company had been eyeing such a move for the past two years but previously “did not have the bandwidth” to do so.
He said the firm finally made the move after gas wholesaler CNG Group announced its exit from the market and advised its customers to find an alternative gas shipper. CNG is currently undergoing a managed wind-down and is expected to cease trading by 30 November.
Whilst stressing that he has no reason to think its current gas shipper, Orsted, will stop providing its services, Bastian explained: “After what happened with CNG, we said we need to do something ourselves. We do not want to be caught unaware in the maelstrom of something else happening…having all this come to light. We said we need to build our own basis of business continuity and contingency planning.”
He said becoming its own gas shipper would give Outfox more options as to how it participates in the wholesale market should a “black swan event” like the exit of CNG happen again, adding: “We thought in the future people doing gas shipping services will probably charge a premium in light of what happened with CNG because they took all the risk and therefore Glencore pulled out. Their biggest backer decided ‘thank you very much’ and they were left bereft.
“We do not want to be orphaned by a gas shipping service provider going into administration and, because Ofgem do not have a shipper of last resort service, we would have been orphaned like 18 suppliers have been orphaned.”
Interested parties have until Thursday (18 November) to comment on Outfox’s application.
Elsewhere in the market, Good Energy recently revealed plans to become its own gas shipper following a new deal with Barrow Green Gas, which has been contracted to provide the service in the meantime.