Wholesale gas prices have risen by 250% and smaller UK gas firms are shutting down. This has led to a food shortage because of a lack of CO2 (used in beverages and poultry stunning) which is produced from natural gas. The UK government is going to look at what they can do which may include loans to the bigger companies to take on customers from smaller firms. The issue being there are price caps so the supplier will have to absorb the costs of the sky-high gas prices.
What's the reason for the price rises? There are a few things being mentioned, higher demand after the pandemic, higher use in Asia and lower output from Russia. The one that immediately caught my attention was the lower output from Russia. Apparently, they have suddenly lowered supply to Europe but for no apparent reason. Analysts believe that they may be doing it to speed up the introduction of the new Nord Stream 2 line that goes through the Baltic and comes from Russia.
What I find curious is that the UK news agencies don't seem to be covering the Russia angle in relation to the price rise. And I'm wondering what the reason is for this. Is it because they don't want to publicly acknowledge that Russia has so much leverage over the UK's energy supply?
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/24/rus...europe-as-nord-stream-2-nears-completion.html