World energy markets

In the UK, we can no longer rely on energy from the North Sea as we could in previous decades. In fact, in 2011, the UK imported around 50% of the gas it needed.

Buying wholesale

We provide gas and power to half of Britain's homes and have over 1 million contracts in place for business supply in the UK, making us the largest energy supplier to small businesses in the UK. We can currently meet around 60% of this demand from our own energy sources.

However, we have to compete in increasingly unstable markets to find the rest. This means buying it on the open market, or 'wholesale'. The prices in these markets can be affected by a number of different factors. You can find out a bit more about these here.

Looking further

As well as buying large amounts of energy on the wholesale market, we have developed long-term arrangements with important energy suppliers worldwide. For instance, we're working closely with Qatar Petroleum in the Middle East to make sure we have a stable and secure supply of liquified natural gas (LNG) and to look at future opportunities together.