Gas garage facility may just shut with out executive assist, Centrica boss warns

The UK’s biggest gasoline garage facility might be closed if the federal government does now not assist give a boost to a redevelopment of the web site, the boss of the corporate which owns it has advised the BBC.

Centrica leader government Chris O’Shea advised BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that its Rough garage facility could be “shut down” with out executive assist over power pricing.

Centrica – which owns British Gas – says the web site is about to lose £100m this yr, and it needs to speculate £2bn within the facility so it might use it to retailer extra gasoline, together with hydrogen.

The executive stated the way forward for Rough was once a industrial choice for Centrica however it’s open to discussing proposals.

The Rough facility is off the coast of East Yorkshire, and accounts for roughly part of the capability the United Kingdom has to retailer gasoline.

It was once closed in 2017, however then in part reopened in October 2022 following the power disaster caused by means of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Centrica stated it was once in “constructive discussions” with the federal government for a give a boost to mechanism that might permit funding within the Rough web site to continue.

The corporate is looking for a “cap and floor” pricing mechanism. This signifies that if power costs fall underneath a definite stage its revenues can be crowned up, however costs could be capped in the event that they upward push too prime.

“What we’re asking for is simply for the government to help create the conditions which will unlock £2bn of investment,” Mr O’Shea advised the BBC.

“It will create thousands of jobs in the construction phase, and it will safeguard the jobs of very highly skilled colleagues that are offshore.”

Without this funding he stated the web site could be decommissioned “and we’ll lose this resilience”.

He stated the United Kingdom these days has 12 days of gasoline garage, of which Rough supplies six.

“So if we don’t have Rough anymore, then we go down to six days. Now, if we take Rough to full capacity, we will go up to about 25, or 30 days.”

Last week, Mr O’Shea stated the way in which that the power pricing mechanism labored supposed that development of renewables would now not “materially” cut back UK electrical energy costs from present ranges.

He advised Laura Kuenssberg on a seek advice from to the North Sea platform that decarbonisation was once vital and in addition a “huge economic opportunity”.

However he added that “the price we see today for electricity is the same as the price that we’re given to new renewable developments”.

“Therefore, that new renewable development will not bring down the price.”

He added that he idea the federal government’s 2030 goal for blank power was once “very challenging, but I think it’s right that the energy secretary has set a very stretching target”.

“It’s not impossible, no, but it’s not easy.”

Last yr, Mr O’Shea advised the BBC that the £4.5m pay he gained the former yr was once “impossible to justify”.

And previous this month, just about 40% of Centrica’s shareholders voted towards the corporate’s newest pay plans.

When requested about this by means of Laura Kuenssberg, Mr O’Shea stated: “I don’t set my own pay.

“I believe it is in reality tough,” he said. “I’m unbelievably lucky. I’ve a role the place the marketplace charge is is greater than ever idea I’d have executed.”