Gas prices lower next year

Cardew wrote:

Madam Melbury!!

I heard that but couldn’t find anything about it in the newspapers. A search on the Telegraph reveals this from yesterday, which appears to contradict what we heard!

"Gas prices soar this winter, says minister
By Edmund Conway, Economics Editor
(Filed: 23/08/2006)


Britain is to suffer another winter of soaring gas prices, with supply just as tight as in the past two years, the energy minister has warned.
Even the completion of two gas pipelines built to improve the supply to the UK this winter will not prevent businesses and households facing record prices and the prospect of having their supply cut off, Malcolm Wicks said.
The warning will cause dismay among the public and in boardrooms, since many had hoped that billions of pounds spent on investment would ensure energy supplies would not be as tight as in the past two years.
Mr Wicks said that, although two extra import pipelines are scheduled to come on stream this winter, the additional gas being pumped to the UK would fail to outweigh the dramatic fall in the amount of gas coming from the North Sea.
"Sadly, they are balancing each other out," he said, adding that the public was also consuming more gas.
A number of oil and gas experts had promised that, because of the construction of pipelines and extra storage facilities, gas supplies could rise, and prices fall, when they came on line. However, Mr Wicks's warning appears to rule out this outcome."It's not going to be the easiest of winters and we need to manage this with care and make sure we get it right," he said at an energy industry conference in Norway. "It's looking the same as the last two or three years."
Consumers are struggling to pay off gas bills, which have already risen by more than 65pc over the past three years, and economists have warned that these increased costs are having a severe impact on incomes.
All major gas and electricity suppliers have announced further increases in their charges in recent weeks, and analysts think there could well be further rises during the winter.
Last winter the National Grid issued an unprecedented supply alert amid fear of shortages.
Britain has been particularly hard hit by scarcity in gas because it recently went from being a net gas exporter to being a net importer, and is reliant on one major point of connection with Europe - the Interconnector.
Gas companies have complained that domestic German and French companies can control how much gas flows to the Interconnector, hence pushing up the price of gas to be transported to the UK.
The news pushed natural gas prices for delivery this winter higher. Gas for delivery in the six months to March 2007 jumped 0.6p to 70.7p a therm in late trading.
The price is still shy of its record 88.7p level reached in April, but is expected to rise further still in the coming months."

I may be cynical but I cannot believe that any cut in prices will be more than a token affair.

Those on capped tariffs(and fixed tariffs) paid a premium over the standard tariff. If the standard tariff was reduced by, say, 3% I assume the capped tariff would reduce by the same amount – but the fixed tariff would stay, er – fixed.