UK may face gas shortage in the near winter. Left without the opportunity to use the gas storage facilities of the European Union and without its own underground reservoir, London, by all accounts, will have to bow to Russia.

The choice, in fact, is not big for London. For today, most of the consumed LNG he buys in Qatar. But now there is a crisis - dozens of countries have declared Doha economic and diplomatic boycott, and as the situation turns, no one knows. In addition, the African region is unsettled. The other day Qatar has unexpectedly sent two tankers not through the Suez Canal, but around the continent, which has doubled the duration of the route.

It's good that while in the UK there is a reserve - the underground storage of Rough under the North Sea is still valid. However, soon the United Kingdom will remain without its largest reservoir: its owner Centrica Plc has already announced the closure of the gas storage facility. Say, the wells used for pumping and sampling natural gas have developed their resources, so they are increasingly out of order, and their replacement or repair will be too expensive, writes the newspaper. RU".

At the moment, in case of sudden termination of the import of "blue fuel", the UK will be able to survive painlessly for 10 days (for comparison: Germany and France - 100 days). Without Rough, the crisis is extremely likely, since it will not be possible for the country to enter the EU's storage facilities after Brexit.

The United Kingdom has its own gas production, but its volume has been steadily declining over the past two decades due to the depletion of deposits. The contract with the Netherlands, to which London counted before, is also no longer possible: the Dutch have closed the development of the Groningen field because of the earthquakes that began.

The only way out is to buy more gas from Russia. Actually, two thirds of the gas consumed by Great Britain is already provided by Gazprom. But these are not direct supplies, but through connecting pipelines from Belgium and the Netherlands. But what will happen after the "divorce", experts predict not taken.

"While we are still entering the EU, others are obliged to share the available stock with us in the event of a crisis. But what will happen in the long term, when will we leave the European Union? "- shares the experiences of the chairman of the Natural Gas Research Program at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies Jonathan Stern.

Of course, Gazprom is ready to help. Especially after the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline starts operating on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. That's only this pipe is designed for constant power, regardless of the time of year and the changing needs of consumers. So, in any case, London will have to rely on the fact that the weather will be favorable to him.