Britain may have lower gas stockpiles going into the winter after the owner of British Gas indicated it plans to sell its stored gas to help reduce losses at a North Sea gas storage facility.
Centrica said the financial losses from its Rough gas storage business were not sustainable, meaning it would aim to sell the existing gas at the site without restocking before winter.
The FTSE 100 energy company is lobbying the government to help support the site, which lost £26m in the first half of the year, according to the company’s financial results, after making £53m in profit a year ago.
The dwindling returns from Centrica’s gas storage business, combined with mild weather and falling wholesale energy prices, caused the company’s profits to halve from more than £1bn in the first half of last year, to about £500m in the first six months of 2025.
Chris O’Shea, Centrica’s chief executive, said this year had “seen more challenging conditions” for British Gas, which made £133m in operating profit in the first half of the year compared with £156m in the same months last year.
He also took a swipe at the company’s nearest household energy rival, Octopus Energy, for reportedly failing to meet the regulator’s financial resilience targets, which were put in place to prevent energy companies from going bankrupt.
Octopus is one of three big energy suppliers that have reportedly failed to meet Ofgem’s financial thresholds and have been asked to present a plan to the regulator to show how they will meet the rules in the next two years.
O’Shea said that it was “outrageous” and “criminal” that Ofgem had not stopped Octopus from acquiring new customers until it met the new rules, introduced after scores of suppliers collapsed during the energy crisis.
He launched his attack on Octopus months after the supplier, founded by Greg Jackson, toppled British Gas from its position as Britain’s biggest home energy provider for the first time in the almost four decades since the industry was privatised.
Octopus called O’Shea’s comments “yet more naked self-interest” and suggested that British Gas “obsess about their customers rather than their rivals”. Its spokesperson added that Octopus complied fully with Ofgem’s rules.
The two chief executives were also on opposing sides of the industry’s debate over zonal energy pricing earlier this year: O’Shea cautioned against overhauling Britain’s energy market, while Jackson was the most vocal supporter of the plans – which ministers have since been ruled out.
O’Shea said that he did not expect a swift response from the government on Centrica’s call for financial support for Rough, but the company was able to inject gas into the storage facility for this winter if a resolution was found.
Centrica reopened Britain’s largest gas storage site in late 2022 amid Europe’s energy crisis, when rocketing prices helped make the facility financially attractive. But as European gas market prices cooled Rough has put financial pressure on the company.
