Exports via key UK-EU gas link halted during winter cold snap

Exports via a major pipeline, which delivers natural gas to mainland Europe from the UK through Belgium, have been shut due to an equipment failure.

The late Saturday halt to the link’s export capacities is expected to last until March 8, operator Interconnector Ltd said in a notice on its website Sunday. The pipeline has been an important source of supplies to the European Union after severe cuts in exports from Russia. Even so, flows from Britain already fell last week as a late-winter cold snap boosts the country’s domestic demand for the fuel. 

EU’s gas inventories, fuller-than-normal thanks to mostly mild weather this winter, are providing a healthy buffer for the region. Strong imports of liquefied natural gas are also helping to meet a spike in demand. But halted flows from the UK, coupled with some field works in Norway — Europe’s key supplier — could lead to higher withdrawals from storage, testing the continent’s network in the coming days.