Your Gas Bill How High Can It Go?

 My IB Times posting on how Governments and the EU are effectively taxing your warmth:

Natural Gas - Even Keeping Warm is Ripe for EU Extortion [BLOG]

By Martin Cole: Subscribe to Martin's RSS feed 

I imagine that international consciousness of the fact that water is indirectly delivered from the heavens for free initially prevented the  despots of what became the EU from attempting to tax delivery of that precious and life-giving resource.

The early years of the coming together of Europe's nation states in a progressive community, dedicated to delivering Marxism disguised as the mixed economy, also happened to coincide with the conversion of the northern tier of western European from town gas produced from coal to natural gas tapped, as fresh water often is, from beneath the land and increasingly from beneath the sea.

In even medium-sized British towns, smelly gasworks advertised their presence by large and highly visible gasometers. They were steadily replaced by vans converting every street to North Sea gas. Gas lights spluttered their welcome pools of light every quarter of a mile or so into the Devon countryside as I cycled home from boy scouts, running to a halt when I still had over a mile to continue, with only the stars (unfiltered by any orange sodium glow) and the glow-worms in the high hedgerows to keep me safe from the bogeyman, in whom, of course, I no longer believed

These were the days before even British Gas, itself now supposedly replaced in the public mind by the villainous Centrica whose latest price gouging is neatly encapsulated in the statement that it "raised tariffs 6 percent for around 8.4 million households at the end of 2012. Operating profit for the segment rose 11 percent to £606m."

The Gas Council ran things in those days with some rather quaint financial structures, as I experienced when working for a US oil company developing the North Sea oilfield Beryl.

After leaving the UK in the Wilson/Callaghan years, disgusted at the blatant and deliberate attempt to undermine, if not sabotage, the North Sea oil industry for ruinous point-scoring dressed up as "participation", I spent some time working in the US. Here, my ultimate employer was a natural gas transmission pipeline company, regulated (quite properly) as a public utility, down to the finest detail of our corporate accounts.

Before leaving Britain, I had seen the British Gas Council, in the shape of Sir Denis Rooke, make possible the country's conversion to natural gas to the benefit of the consumer and a maximum return to the oil industry investors of 20 percent AARR, the industry minimum for offshore exploration to be viable. For the last 20 years I have looked on in horror at how this supply of warmth to the cold northernmost countries of Europe has been manipulated to extract revenue in a manner reminiscent of the means by which the euro is now being used to bring austerity to those beyond the reach of such warmth extortion.

In the process, our civil service has been bent to an extent that must have Sir Denis not just turning, but writhing in his grave.

There cannot be a wholesale gas price index set by giants engaged in the business. Only full government right of audit and prohibition of cross-border transfers can achieve what national and EU politicians claim is a regulated market.

This is not some new fact. It has been known and recognised in the US in law for years. There can only be one reason that that is not the case within the EU - companies and/or regulators are making unjustified profits, presumably leading to some individuals somewhere receiving rake-offs.

 Martin Cole runs several politically themed blogs, mainly Ironies Too, and tweets and comments about the erosions of liberty

Defrauding of Britain's taxpayers by Luxembourg & Holland

The active involvement of Britain in the massive financial confidence trick that is the existing European Union was effectively brought to a close yesterday afternoon in the Boothroyd Room, Portcullis House in Westminster at a meeting of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. Read here. (The absence of full and proper reporting by the British press is perhaps an indication that the authorities are aware of the gravity of this situation).

Almost concurrently news of a claim for back taxes from France against such companies also became available and the massive manipulation of the gas market on which this blog has been posting under a general heading of "Bacton Interconnector" also hit the newswires.

It is astounding that the Coalition Government's Treasury Team has not been investigating and called a halt to the scams revealed by the PAC yesterday. These would mostly have been instituted under successive Labour Treasury teams under Brown and Blair. For a start from yesterday we have proof that Luxembourg and Holland have been effectively defrauding Britain's taxpayers, most likely with the knowledge of British ministers! How can George Osborne, supposedly desperate for every penny of tax revenue, have long ignored this deceit?

The rip off of British taxpayers by energy giants in Germany and France will eventually also have to be put under the spotlight, if our present weak government has the courage to remove us from the web of lies and deceit that have bankrupted our nation during the past 40 years.

Investigation of the influence of perverts in the higher reaches of government should also now be expedited, for if blackmail can indeed be proven as a tool used to obtain our membership of the original Common Market, this could affect the size of the amounts of damages which we should now seek! Hence the BBC and North Wales matters are not the total distraction from this grave matter of treason and corruption that they might initially appear.

Was Ed Balls sudden removal from last evenings debate in the House of Commons perhaps an early  signal that the Labour Party is becoming aware of the hideousness of the crimes they perpetrated against our nation under Blair and Brown, with Balls presumed full knowledge and the perhaps active participation of all their Treasury teams?

US LNG exports will expose the conspiracy/fraud suffered by EU Gas consumers for decades.

My eye was caught yesterday by the following tweet from Nick Grealy, a shale gas expert whom I follow on Twitter. The Forbes article may be read from the pasted link:
 

‪#LNG‬ Why exporting US LNG is a good idea. Unless you're Russian, Qatari, Australian or Centrica . http://www.forbes.com/sites/energyso …

‪

Why is this of interest and how can it justify my headline to this post with all its grave implications of a vast conspiracy having been perpetrated against customers for natural gas within the EU over many years? Particularly, I would stress, within the UK, due to the transmission constraints of the Bacton Interconnector, long the topic of speculation on this blog!

Reading and understanding the Forbes article it becomes clear that it has so far proved impossible to establish any indice for the international pricing of tradable natural gas, known in the business as LNG. If US LNG exports are allowed this fact will become both common knowledge and eventually cause that circumstance to no longer be true. That will then become widespread common knowledge as natural gas prices are seen to tumble.

The complete and utter confidence trick of the supposed monitoring of wholesale gas prices such as that by Ofgem in the UK, read their presentation from here in pdf format, will quickly then become exposed. Activities, such as these, will then be exposable by a paper trail of invoicing for investigators of any possible industry involvement.

Uncovering the motivation of national regulators, governments and their agencies, the possible advantages gained by elected political parties and susidising of the institutions of the EU itself, will hopefully eventually follow.

A possible further end result might be that we will detect the motivation behind Britain's three main parties leading us into the disastrous EU arrangements on the sly, even though the present collapse and likely disastrous economic consequences were always flagged up by leading economists and many other opponents such as myself, who holds considerable experience in natural gas pricing issues relating to LNG projects, North Sea Gas production and pricing and indeed the seaborne trading of LPG. I have always believed that what has been going on in the EU is based on an entirely false premise namely a wholesale market price where no free market either exists or is possible in the case of the UK.

My reply to John Redwood today - UK energy pricing

Martin Cole

Posted April 13, 2012 at 6:34 am | Permalink

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Who can but applaud your closing sentence “The government is trying to abate the high prices for the largest users of energy through subsidy, but energy cost remains an obstacle to successful competitive manufacturing in the UK. it needs instead to trigger more energy developments, and to pursue a policy of cheaper energy instead of interfering with the market in a way designed to raise prices.”
Crucially our energy industries, other than in internationally priced oil products, remain under the control of foreign state controlled monopoly suppliers, mostly French and German, whose priority quite clearly is through energy pricing, to render UK exports uncompetitive with their own in world markets.
The French and German governments, as for all others on the Continent, see the protection and advancement of their deomestic industry as their first priority, taking care of which requires close attention at home, not whizzing around the world on a combined domestic political PR come champagne sales drive jolly, with docile UK industrialists in tow.
Recovering price control over our own power utilities is now probably a priority even ahead of removing ourselves from the crippled EU itself!

France uses UK as cash cow for mitigation of its high energy costs!

EDF the French state-owned energy company has announced huge profits on its UK energy operations. Read a Daily Mail report, from here.

France would never contemplate any of its strategically important industries falling into the hands of foreigners or neighbouring competing nations, especially not if British.

Yet Britain's inept and house-trained politicians have allowed such a situation to prevail for years in the UK.

This blog has repeatedly warned of the consequences we have seen with tonight's EDF profit announcement, often with the Bacton Interconnector being mentioned in the postings.

Many things stink about Britain's relationship with the EU, the energy scams stand out for special note!

Straits of Hormuz - EU allocation of Britain's energy

I thought it timely to repeat a posting, linked here, on a possible closure of the Striats of Hormuz, from this blog, first posted in May 2008, even more worrying today:

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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Freezing in the Dark

In a few months time, in the midst of the next bleak mid-winter, British families could well be freezing in the dark, all thanks to the promise breaking and deepest treachery of their Government and its manifesto promise breaking back bench MPs and Peers joined by the equally treacherous Liberal/Democrats. Why? Start by reading this report on the growing crisis over Iran's nuclear weapons programme.


Now study this map of the narrow entrance to the Arabian Gulf at Quoin Island through which must pass nearly the entire oil exports of the Arabian/Persian Gulf. Note how it is dominated by Iran and remember that test firing of torpedoes recently occurred.

Now read these provisions of the new EU Lisbon Treaty due to come into force on 1st January next year, without the promised British referendum.

TEU Article 5:

2. Under the principle of conferral, the Union shall act only within the limits of the competences conferred upon it by the Member States in the Treaties to attain the objectives set out therein.

Competences not conferred upon the Union in the Treaties remain with the Member States.

TFEU
TITLE XXI
ENERGY
Article 194
1. In the context of the establishment and functioning of the internal market and with regard for
the need to preserve and improve the environment, Union policy on energy shall aim, in a spirit of solidarity between Member States, to:
(a) ensure the functioning of the energy market;
(b) ensure security of energy supply in the Union;

Now read my post below!

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EU manipulation of Britain's energy prices!

The BBC has just issued this report on Britains excessive energy prices, and soaring profits for the energy companies from £15 per customer to £125 p.a..

This blog has been on that case for years, for one example, read this January 2009 posting on gas price and supply manipulation.

If the regulators really wished to control matters, rather than merely act as a curtain, shielding their political leaders from accountability, for their treason over the EU, they should ask themselves and those they regulate, for the exact corporate ownership lines and contracts between the companies that sell gas in the UK market, the physical capabilities of the Bacton interconnector facility, the actual physical flows, full ownership details and the direction of travel of the volumes actually passing through Bacton.

Most crucially of all, the exact end company ownership and participation in the contracts and spot deals that go towards framing the wholesale gas contract prices, which forms the underpinning basis for the prices, which all the gas suppliers are subsequently permitted to apply to the UK market.

A thorough understanding, must also first be gained, of what eventually became of all the low-priced, fixed price, gas supplies that the oil companies negotiated with the old monopoly buyer, the Gas Council and the political and financial imperatives driving those who allowed that system to end.

One basic essential fact, has to be at the forefront of legislators and regulators minds regarding natural gas, that is that a true free market cannot ever exist. The term "wholesale" surely gives that fact away! Every market participant only benefits from higher prices. That truth itself arises from the fact that natural gas is not a product that can ever be handled, let alone easily or cheaply.

The natural industry requires huge investment, complicated pipeline networks and a sense of decency in the Boardrooms. Methane (the main component of natural gas), it is a fact, when transported by sea has to be cooled to minus 260° a hugely expensive undertaking. I once worked for a natural gas transmission company in the USA, serving the US East Coast with gas from Oklahoma and Texas by pipelines, we were rightly regulated to the nth degree even to the point of the shareholders' dividends!

All involved in the supposed European Wholesale Gas Market, depend upon higher prices for their higher profits. It is therefore not a true market, it is an expensive and clever sham. That is the flaw, as was well known by the politicians when the Gas Council monopoly buying status was terminated. All the rest is sleight of hand, to allow the utility companies to price gouge their UK customers.

How many gas suppliers in Britain now have their trading profits remitted to HMRC for taxation?  In the answer to that last question lies the prospect of potential treason rather than incompetence or stupidity, which has become the politician's normal excuse for such outrages!

Is Germany saddling its EU economic enemies with excess energy costs?

(Later edit - added 0740 GMT 20/9/11, the video I sought, as mentioned in the first paragraph of this posting, was by Volker Beckers of RWEnpower , and is now included at the end of this posting. Many thanks to AK Haart for finding it for me)

There exists a YouTube video which shows a German executive of E.ON addressing a UK audience and confirming that offshore wind energy production costs are some three times those of available alternatives. I will add it at the end of this post when and if I can re-locate it. Meantime consider the incredible figures set out by another E.ON operative in the following video:



The tragic accident this week that took the lives of four Welsh miners also provides food for further thought on energy costs, when considering the frequent broadcast comments that locals had no knowledge of the mining operations underway at the location where the deadly and tragic accident occurred. Yet Britain's coal resources were nationalised for the supposed benefit of the nation many years ago. If coal-mining is again economically viable in Wales, why is it not being undertaken by the successor to the NCB, to ease both the nation's energy costs and unemployment in South Wales.

Further signs of a conspiracy, involving the energy costs for our country, hit me last week, when I saw the huge two page advertisements by the Norwegian State Oil Company, Statoil, extolling the benefits for Britain of Norways neighbouring deposits of natural gas, see more here. Nobody should need to point out such obvious benefits in a sane world, are they necessary because Britain's rulers, now completely contolled from the near continent, wish to deprive our manufacturers of the benefits of competitively priced energy from which we may never recover?

Where does the blame lie for all of this treachery? Dubious decisions and actions that will lumber the nation with excess energy costs for decades ahead are this moment being made by this Coalition Government, thus making any manufacturing recovery nigh on impossible, to the main benefit of the German's and the French, whose energy companies control Britain's energy costs through their economic and possibly political imperatives. No blame can attach to their national leaders and politicians, they are doing their utmost to secure the jobs, futures and livliehoods of their own citizens!

The traitors are those in Britain who have ceded such powers to foreigners, presumably in stupidity or for their own personal advancement or the power gains of the foul and corrupt political parties to which they owe their allegiance.

Britain must seize this moment of crisis within the Eurozone to take back the responsibilities for determining its own future by quitting the EU. Gerhard Schroeder, senior figure of the next German controlling party, the SPD, has already made clear that an EU with no say for Britain, is Germany's planned course, as I posted and linked yesterday on this blog. Those politicians not  NOW seeking an exit from the EU, for the UK, are blind to the future of generations of our citizens yet unborn

Securing UK Energy supplies - The Bacton Interconnector and Huhne vs Redwood.

My first post today, considers how the world might best begin to address a potential energy supply shortage and urges that the IEA, rather than the EU, be involved in running any such programme. Assuming that can be achieved, how then may the corrupt EU be kept from any inolvement in allocating supplies within the 27 countries of the EU, its sticky-fingered and morally unprincipled officials could almost certainly be relied upon to establish the basic principle as one of self-enrichment for themselves likely resulting in supply priority for the wealthiest?

The Lisbon Treaty, among its many other deep and disgraceful flaws, states the following on energy:

An important policy in relation to energy is that a new part on energy is added to the TFEU with one article (Title XXI with article 194 in the consolidated TFEU, title XX with article 176A in the Lisbon Treaty). The article is relatively short, it reads:

"1.In the context of the establishment and functioning of the internal market and with regard for the need to preserve and improve the environment, Union policy on energy shall aim, in a spirit of solidarity between Member States, to:
(a) ensure the functioning of the energy market;
(b) ensure security of energy supply in the Union;
(c) promote energy efficiency and energy saving and the development of new and renewable forms of energy; and
(d) promote the interconnection of energy networks.

2. Without prejudice to the application of other provisions of the Treaties, the European Parliament and the Council, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure, shall establish the measures necessary to achieve the objectives in paragraph 1. Such measures shall be adopted after consultation of the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions.

Clearly, with such ludicrous and practically meaningless verbiage, the potential for many months of pointless bickering and all the usual EU failures must quickly appear.

Britain's interface with the Continent, in so far as natural gas is concerned, is via the Bacton Interconnector, read here. To ensure there is no misunderstanding as to Britain's views on where energy sovereignty starts and ends, I suggest the government moves immediately to place the British end of that facility, immediately under its control by use of a strong military presence.

Replacement of the former EU MEP and EU quisling Chris Huhne as Energy Secretary, by a robust Conservative such as John Redwood should ideally be carried out concurrently!

Staythorpe Protests

The Guardian has a report on today's protest linked here. It occurs to me to wonder how our British politicians imagine UK residents can survive being ripped off on their energy payments by foreign owned companies who contract other foreign owned companies to build replacement power generating stations to continue ripping off British consumers who by then will have been bled dry paying unemployment benefits to the construction workers displaced by all this foreign labour? Meantime as repeatedly pointed out on this blog, much of Britain's low cost North Sea Gas will have been diverted to the EU to be replaced by swap product at the EUs wholesale price. According to the link from my post below this, the EU might, however, soon be on its last legs - Roll On!

Ukraine stops Russian Gas again!

Unacceptable transit conditions are the latest reason given for the interruption in resumed gas deliveries from Russia for Europe. Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise for it seems only something drastic such as a halt in domestic gas deliveries will bring home to the ill-informed British public the real risk from the Lisbon Treaty and the grave dangers the country already faces thanks to the contempt and neglect of their political class!

Gas thefts begin - Britain faces cuts!

The Sunday Times reports less than a week's supply for the UK and raises the prospects of cuts, linked here. The following is a quote from their report: Suppliers were forced to dip into reserves last week after energy companies began siphoning gas out of Britain to supply other parts of Europe.... (Ireland's) Energy regulator CER said on Tuesday that Ireland could be indirectly affected if the Russia-Ukraine crisis persisted. “Obviously if that continues to develop over the next couple of months and gas from the North Sea is directed into Europe, it could affect us that way,” a spokesman said..... My other posts on this topic from earlier in the week may be viewed by scrolling down the page, this in particular gives some background.

Open Europe comments on Daily Express Gas scare!

The following is from the daily Open Europe e-mail update on EU events of concern:

Comment: In addition to giving the EU new powers relating to security of energy supply, to be decided on by majority voting, the Lisbon Treaty would also create a new obligation for security of energy supply policy to be framed "in a spirit of solidarity between member states." The European Commission has in the past proposed measures which would increase member states' holdings of emergency oil stocks and hand control of those stocks to Brussels. The Government successfully opposed these plans in 2002 but they remain on the table. The EU treaties have never before contained any specific powers on energy policy. When it was first proposed that these powers should be created during the European Convention (the conference which drew up the original EU Constitution in 2003), the UK Government was strongly opposed and tried to get them deleted. The Government said at the time: "This provision is unnecessary as all aspects of energy policy are effectively covered elsewhere in the Treaty e.g. single market, environment. In addition, we have detailed concerns on the text, which we consider may have the unintended effect of changing the boundaries of EU competence and the types of measure which will be subject to unanimity."

Steal our Gas - Stick your Yoghurt!

The French have taken control of large swathes of Britain's economy thanks to the total incompetence of recent British governments - but at least they do not choose to rub our noses in it with nightly commercials. Since when have folks in Shropshire put two dots over the letter U? German Politicians have decided to phase out their nuclear power stations and rely on Russian Gas. Let Germans, therefore, be the ones to freeze in the dark. To send that message why not boycott

Müller Yoghurt

Daily Express twigs EU plan to purloin Britain's Gas

The report is here. As this blog has repeatedly pointed out under the Lisbon Treaty Britain loses control of its energy policy and therefore its energy reserves. Lisbon has not been ratified so for the moment we do not have to freeze in the dark for the sake of those on the Continent. This happy status will not last for long! Indeed in Britain's bankrupt state economic pressures could soon force that very situation. Some quotes from the Express: BRITAIN’S vital North Sea oil and gas supplies are to be taken over by Europe under emergency plans revealed for the first time in Brussels yesterday. Ultimate control over Britain’s vast natural gas and oil fields – by far the biggest resource within the EU – will fall to Brussels if the new treaty, which has already been ratified by Britain, is adopted throughout Europe.

Meanwhile, in a closed-door meeting with high-ranking European politicians, Mr Barroso said the current crisis showed the need for urgency in adopting a common EU energy policy.

He called for a “mutualisation of energy stocks”, the better use of “EU indigenous energy resources” and said it was vital that member states show “solidarity” with their struggling partners in eastern Europe.

Mr Barroso added that he would soon have the legal authority to take over control of energy reserves under the Lisbon Treaty.

He said the new powers were necessary because requests to national governments to detail what gas reserves they had available had produced no response.

Britain's Gas and the Bacton Interconnector

In view of Russia's restrictions of Gas supplies to the EU the very first point to emphasise on this topic is that as the Lisbon Treaty has not been ratified there is absolutely no requirement on the UK to allocate their energy supplies, either oil or gas, with countries suffering shortages on the Continent. Outside of the EU, in the spirit of the first rate international co-operation that existed within Europe before the EU began to spread its poisonous mistrust, there still exists the normal needs for neighbourly co-operation. When I was in the UK preparing the launch of the failed bid to establish a party that stood for truth and honesty in politics at the last General Election, there appeared in the Evening Standard some twenty pages of job vacancy adverts, placed by the state-owned Italian oil and gas giant Agip for gas traders and gas accountants to work in London. There was evidence of other European energy monopolies hiring such staff around the same time. Agip had tiny North Sea Gas production at the time and as a former oil man and liquefied petroleum gas trader in international markets I was extremely suspicious of these moves and correctly anticipated the subsequent large increases in the costs of Natural Gas to Britain's consumers.. I suspect many UK gas customers are now supplied by such European giant companies. Shortly afterwards the Bacton Interconnector was opened allowing cheap British North Sea Gas to flow to the Continent. Watch your supplies and warn your MP that you will not tolerate your family freezing to satisfy some non-legally binding EU fiddling designed to keep others warm at your expense. Britons have been paying an ultra-high price for their gas over the past year or so - that should at least offer security of supply.

Fire at the Bacton InterConnector

Any who recall my trying to get this topic on the Veritas election agenda or have closely read my blogs down the years will realise the significance I have attached to this news. On the other hand, maybe Britain still has not wised up and it really is an accident!