Britain facing freezing winter as Iran war leaves gas storage empty for months

Industry leaders warned of a bitterly cold winter as we won’t be able to fill our gas reserves back up in Britain in time for a cold snap due to the ongoing conflict

Britain is facing a freezing winter of discontent unless the war in the Middle East ends soon, experts warn. Industry leaders fear cars will be forced to go no faster than 50mph as fuel prices surge across the globe.

And they warned of a bitterly cold winter as we won’t be able to fill our gas reserves back up in Britain in time for a cold snap. Ashley Kelty, of investment bank Panmure Liberum, said that “even if the rockets stop tomorrow” it will take a month to get back to normality.

He added that Britain faces a “very challenging” winter, as even if the conflict comes to an end the nation will struggle to refill its gas storage ahead of the cold months. Callum MacPherson, head of commodities at Investec, reckons that people “would have to travel less” if the war went on and hit oil and fuel supplies.

He said: “If you do not have enough fuel, governments have to think very carefully about how they use the fuel they have.”

Adam Bell, a former government energy official at consultancy Stonehaven, said home-working guidance may be needed to curb energy consumption on things like public transport and office buildings.

Jennifer McKeown, chief global economist from Capital Economics, said: “The energy-intensive sectors of industry, hotels and retail, are likely to be hit the hardest.

“The sharp increase in the cost of energy is going to mean that it is quite likely that industrial production will need to be cut back.”

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), warned that the current energy supply shock is worse than the 1970s.

The IEA has called for car-free Sundays globally and urged people to work from home three days a week to conserve fuel.

But the Government here is convinced the UK has enough fuel and their biggest concern is to avoid panic buying that could create fresh problems.

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