Avid readers might recall a post I made exactly a month ago about an impending gas crisis. Things are now beginning to get critical.

Russia - Ukraine fallout

Russia's gas cuts to Ukraine have led to EU shortages. Can you trust gas coming via a country (Ukraine) whose own gas supply has been cut off? Well, no. Luckily for us in the UK, we don't get all of our gas this way, but as the Ukraine has already begun to steal EU supplies, less gas will eventually get to the UK.

Bad weather

The snow over the last week was well timed. According to the National Grid, if the heavy snow had arrived during a normal business week, the UK's electricity supply (much of which is gas driven) would have been at a deficit of 3%, resulting in mandatory blackouts for sections of the UK population. According to The UK Gas Crisis blog, there are plans for a Web site to be developed by the powers that be of where any blackouts will occur.

The bad news is that long-range forecasts have predicted we're in for another cold snap in a week or so, and if the Ukrainian drama continues till then, both gas and electricity supplies in the UK may be overstretched that mandatory blackouts of gas and electricity will need to take place.

Miscellaneous

The Sedgefield explosion and Gordon Brown's tax hike have also caused problems in the oil industry. Shell is cutting North Sea exploration as a result of the tax hike, for example. The fuel protests several years ago proved how tentative oil supply could be, but these events are having a major impact on supply.

It's rather disturbing how these stories are being pushed to the bottom of the pile by most news outlets, although as the public panics at any sort of bad news it may not be such a bad idea. My advice? If you've got a fire, get some coal in reserve, and keep your petrol tank full.