National Grid: No gas supply emergency

National Grid, one of the world's largest utilities, said that despite it issuing its first Gas Balancing Alert following a surge in gas demand in Britain, this was "a routine market tool issued at times of high demand or – which is not the case today – when there has been a significant supply loss." Gas demand is expected to hit a record of 465.8 million cubic metres (mcm) on Monday December 20, 2010.

"There is no gas emergency and so we are not at stage 1, 2 or 3," said an official spokeman at