Energy Security
Philip Dunne raises his concerns at the lack of capacity for gas storage in the UK.
Mr. Philip Dunne (Ludlow) (Con): My hon. Friend is being characteristically generous-hearted to the Secretary of State. Is this not the Secretary of State who, only a few days ago, told the media that we did not need to worry about gas storage in this country because we had such large offshore oil and gas deposits underground in the North sea? If that is the case, and if that is the justification for his predecessors' failure in not providing more gas storage facilities, why has the other major western industrialised country, the United States, which has substantial underground deposits of oil and gas, been creating significant strategic storage capacity over the past 10 years?
Greg Clark: I agree with my hon. Friend, but the fact that the Secretary of State has described the situation as "urgent" may indicate that he has moved on a bit from that position.
As I have said, I do not think that this issue should divide us. Over the past few days the United Kingdom-based Chemical Industries Association carried out a survey following which it reported that nearly half its members believed that increased storage was essential to future investment by companies in the UK, and over a third claimed that the current uncertainty of supply-caused by a lack of gas storage-was restricting the ability of the sector to invest in the UK. The situation is, as the Secretary of State says, urgent.
