§ The Minister for Energy, E-Commerce and Postal Services (Mr. Stephen Timms)On 8 January 2004, in a written ministerial statement,Official Report, columns 13–14WS, I launched the second phase of a three-phase strategy addressing the issue of future changes in the quality of gas imports to the United Kingdom. I can now inform the House that as part of this phase my officials have successfully let two separate research contracts to address specific technical aspects of the potential remedial measures being explored.
Phase 1 of the gas quality exercise, an independent scoping report commissioned by Government, was completed in November 2003. It confirmed that the Wobbe specification of certain anticipated gas imports to the UK is, before processing, likely to fall outside the current limits of the Health and Safety Executive's Gas Safety (Management) Regulations (GS(M)R). In light 28WS of the expected increase in the UK's dependence on imported gas I launched phase 2 to identify an appropriate policy response.
As stated in previous announcements, our broad policy options appear to be: the "default" option, to retain the current gas quality specifications, or to change the current specifications to more closely reflect the expected quality of future gas supply. Two separate research contracts have recently been let, under a competitive tendering process, to Advantica Limited, to address specific technical issues in connection with these two options. The first will identify the costs, benefits and risks of the options for processing future gas imports to ensure that they comply with existing quality specifications. The latter is the pilot for an exercise aimed at understanding the likely costs, benefits and risks of adapting the UK's gas appliance population to ensure continued safe operation under the delivery of gas with different quality specifications.
I can tell the House now that there is no question of the Government recommending to the HSC, who are responsible for the GS(M)R, to implement an early change in the UK's gas quality regulations. The effective choice, for consideration in due course when the results of the research exercises are apparent, is expected to be between recommending no change at all versus the option of making no immediate change but implementing transitional measures that would provide the flexibility to introduce a change in the gas quality specifications at a much later date, perhaps towards the end of the next decade.
My officials, together with HSE and Ofgem, will be working over the coming months to prepare the ground for a consultation exercise. Once this work is complete I shall make a further statement to the House.
This exercise has been developed by the DTI as a member of the sustainable energy policy network (SEPN), which is working to deliver the Energy White Paper "Our Energy Future—Creating a Low Carbon Economy".