British Gas owner, Centrica PLC (LSE:CNA) has warned that the UK still does not have enough gas storage capacity even with the reopening of its Rough facility.
The UK has nine days of capacity currently while France and the Netherlands have103 and 123 days respectively.
Rough reopening will boost UK national storage capacity by 50% but that's not enough, according to Centrica's boss.
Chris O’Shea said: "In the short term we think Rough can help our energy system by storing natural gas when there is a surplus and producing this gas when the country needs it during cold snaps and peak demand.
Currently, the facility is 20% full and unlikely to be filled until December, according to media reports, though one thing in favour of the government's plan is that an unusually warm autumn so far has seen gas prices tumble.
Last week it was estimated that nearly 50 liquified natural gas (LNG) transport vessels were waiting off the shores of Europe for prices to increase as well as for storage space to open up with most facilities on the continent now almost 90% filled or higher.
Prices per therm currently are around 310p having dropped by 36% during October and from a high of 875p in August when concern over Russia cutting off supplies peaked.