Off Topic The Gas

….. no, I don’t mean our poor cousins from north of the river with their evil cigar-stubbing stepfather……
I mean our utter disgraceful dependency on Putin’s gas supplies.
I’ve said this before that we have made ourselves extremely vulnerable by embracing globalisation, particularly during the Thatcher years, when we de-industrialised and became a mainly Service-driven economy, but there was carelessness in that approach - we now depend on the Russians for our gas and the Europeans for our food and our cars and the Chinese for our consumers and our tech goods.
Even our DATA is in the ‘cloud’ (owned and managed by the Americans) - what happens when we fall out with them?
The Russians are now squeezing our gas supplies - and to be honest I can’t blame them. It’s business.
It was obvious that Brexit would kill off our domination in the Banking services - the moves to Frankfurt are already underway.
We don’t produce anything in this country anymore that anyone else wants and what we DO produce is foreign owned.
God help us if we ever went into another World War - we really would be alone.

 

That’s interesting Wiz - so why are the suppliers panicking?

 

I thought it was to do with cost more than lack of supply

 

Didn't help also, when Brown sold off the gold!! We will just continue to print money, as a Country we are fairly loaded TBF.. It's when they decide to increase interest rates when the panic will set in and everyone will be looking to sell up!!!

 

Only something like 15 years in the North Sea I think.

 

R&W - with respect it seems you are the one who's panicking.
Chill, we'll have something else to worry about next week.

 

Is your energy firm about to go bust and what can you do about it?


https://mol.im/a/10008673

https://news.sky.com/story/energy-p...ter-crisis-talks-over-gas-price-hike-12412916

No chance lights will go out, says government https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58620167


Chill we very probably will……

 

They've gone bust, I think last week.
'Look After My Bills' have taken care of everything and I'm now with British Gas.
Simple.

 

Hmm not sure it’s simple - but we’ll see.
I’m getting my wood burner installed ASAP

 

Exactly
Putin has put the price up

 

I didn't do anything, it all happened seamlessly. It was easy for me, why do you think you'll be different. Sit tight it will also happen seamlessly for you.

ps - Isn't a wood burner bad for the environment ?

 

R&W
How mad is this.
I've just this minute received a text from British Gas telling me 'Peoples Energy' (my previous supplier) has stopped operating assuring me of a continued gas supply.
They will 'be in touch next week'.

Chill, my friend.

 

we have dozens of gas supply companies … it is easy to set yourself up as a octopus or bulb [ having the right marketing know how / computers and soft ware of course ]
you simply agree to buy x amount of gas in a time frame … find x number of customers to sign up for 12 months or so and skim the profit a bit like an agent for insurance etc...
HOWEVER there is 2 distinct ways to set yourself up …
you buy gas as you [ maybe a small family firm [with a name like cheepogas] go hoping it s steady and new customers are attracted at prices after you skim, should it cost you a bit more, hope price rises are steady .. new customers take up slack ….
OR you buy in advance x amount of gas periodically say x units of 1000 [ and use it by a date /dates ! ] depending on your customer base you buy more units periodically, gas is yours they supply it over a period? periodically price increases go up or down but you have paid for say 2 -3 years supply in advance so a big hiccup like now is not a disaster, levels out ….
PROBLEM NOW is maybe 40 or more gas bill suppliers will have customers on 1 year or more contracts wholesale price goes up 30% their profit margin was 25% and wont have the money to pay for gas …………….
companies paying up front will be buying @ todays prices to add to existing supplies [ maybe for 2023/24/? ] so new customers will be charged higher price, those that move over because their goes bust etc.... [ I have just signed up to 24 months with Sainsbury 23 MONTHS TO GO ..LOL ].

 

we will indirectly gain from our own limited supplies North sea [ east and west ] . I highlighted Nigeria previously burning off billions of gas, maybe this will need to liquefied?
Maybe cattle blamed for belching methane and pooing the ingreidient to make it could be utilised to better effect?

Wood burners … should you be in area to use them … is not the answer for the problem for 99% of gas users! AND when "surplus wood is gone what next …. ah yes chop down the oxygen providing tree's …..

 

Why?
If you’re supplier goes bust another steps in. The gas lines outside your house are owned by someone other than you are paying your bills anyway.
Bit like telephone lines, they are all owned and maintained by BT Openreach but you probably pay for your line with whoever your internet provider is.
We will all be coming off gas in the future anyway, so if you were to change surely electric would be better than wood burners.

 

They ARE bad for the environment.
I AM getting one - but it will hardly be used - and it's nothing to do with this gas 'crisis'. I'm putting it in my new bathroom, which I'm installing in what used to be the old kitchen of the house. There is a large open chimney breast there which I presume used to house an old cast-iron range cooker. Sadly the range cooker was removed long before I bought the house. If I can find another range then I'll install that in there instead, but they are as rare as rocking-horse poo so I am likely to go for the cheaper alternative of the wood-burner.
I only plan to light it occasionally - when I'm having a bath in the winter time - I thought it would be a nice feature but I won't be relying on it to heat the house.
We still have the old open fires in our house, but we only light them about half a dozen days a year. I love them - they are very cosy and smell wonderful.

 

I don't use my open fires much JGF - only in the deepest winter - and I have a large wood store made from old pallets, timber offcuts and logs from a tree that I felled 2 years ago because it was too big and about to bring a wall down. I don't go rampaging around forests killing trees!
When I light my fires, I use the wood to get them going and then I put some of those smokeless 'stove nuts' on - but like I said earlier it's only about half a dozen times a year - at Christmas and on especially cold evenings.