DOHA: The UK is likely to import more gas from Qatar, UK Department for Energy and Climate Change permanent secretary Stephen Lovegrove said.
“We will import as much gas as we need, particularly from Qatar and Norway, who are our key sources. It may well be that over a period of time we will need more gas as coal-fired power stations come off the system”so, it’s quite likely that there will be more exports from Qatar,” said Lovegrove on the sidelines of the Brookings Doha Energy Forum 2015 at the Four Seasons.
Lovegrove noted that Qatar was the UK’s “most important” LNG supplier, and emphasised that the UK had the capacity to increase LNG imports significantly both for the UK and EU markets.
We are likely to be using more gas in future. We will be reliant on our international partners to do that, who are mainly Qatar and Norway. So, it is more likely there more coming from Qatar as well,” he explained.
Aside from diversification of suppliers, Lovegrove also emphasised the need to diversify on energy infrastructure.
We need to develop research carbon capture storage. That is a terrific and important technology for continued use of fossil fuels in future, which, in its own right, will increase security in supply.
We would like to see pipelines and LNG terminals increasing in the UK to diversify the supply and the way the supply comes into the territory. We would like to see these infrastructures making landfall in the right places,” Lovegrove noted.
Asked if the UK was in talks with Qatar for the establishment of new energy infrastructure, Lovegrove said, “There are always plans and thoughts about this but not that I’m aware of immediately.”
We have three terminals at the moment, one of them is owned by Qatar in South Hook. There is definitely more need of terminals in the EU. And as our gas supply picture changes in the UK, it may well be that we need more gas terminals as well in the UK,” Lovegrove told Gulf Times.
When asked if oil prices would stabilise in the future, Lovegrove stressed that “there is no means of predicting.”
This was discussed by Amos J Hochstein, US special envoy and co-ordinator for International Energy, in reaction to the forum’s theme “Energy stability or a false sense of security: How changes in geopolitics, political economy, and markets alter the energy landscape.” “Energy markets, by definition, are volatile. They need to be. They were designed to be. And they will continue to be,” Hochstein said.
