American Beasley's blazing BMW 6-Series was found in Queen's Gardens in Glasgow's west end just after 11pm on Monday.
Police said they were treating it as wilful fireraising and were trying to trace the occupants of a white car seen in the area.
Beasley's BMW was parked outside his home when it was targeted, the Daily Record said.
United States international Beasley told the newspaper: "I don't know how to take it really. It's pretty crazy.
"If it is a Celtic-Rangers thing then it's obviously not good.
"It has shocked me - you don't expect to be targeted like this. But I'm not going to be too upset by it."
He told the newspaper that the incident had not really made him think twice about playing for Rangers.
On his social networking Twitter page, the footballer thanked well-wishers for their messages of support.
He wrote: "Thanks again for ALL the messages and kind words.. But yea I'm doin ok and in the market for a new car! Lol..Gotta try to find some humor" and "I'm doin ok, jus glad no one got hurt".
Strathclyde Police appealed for information about the incident, which also left a BMW 5-Series damaged by fire.
Detective Sergeant Sandy Johnston said: "I would appeal to anyone who was in the area of Queen's Gardens in Hyndland around 11pm on Monday night. In particular, I would like to trace the occupants of a white hatchback car which was seen in the area as they may have information that will assist this investigation."
Beasley, who joined Rangers in 2007, has played in two World Cups for the USA, in 2002 and 2006.
Before joining Rangers he played for PSV Eindhoven and also spent a season on loan at Manchester City.
A Rangers spokesman said: "This is a disturbing and deplorable incident and the club will do everything we can to assist the police with their investigations."
Mr Osmond set up Horizon Acquisition together with the former deputy chief executive of Lloyds TSB Michael Fairey and plans to use funds raised in the IPO to invest in heavily-indebted companies in the consumer sector and restructure them.
The company aims to buy a British business with an enterprise value of between £1bn and £3bn, though money raised in the IPO was towards the bottom of an expected range of £400m-£500m.
Credit Suisse was bookrunner for the deal and brokerage Numis was the deal's manager.
Horizon shares, offered at £10 each, opened flat in their market debut.
The performance of similar IPOs has been mixed. Better Capital and Max Property Group have seen their shares rise about 7pc and 15pc, respectively, since their London listing last year. But Resolution, which raised £660m in late 2008 to consolidate financial services companies, has seen its shares trade at a 20pc discount to its float price.
Royal Dutch Shell, the Anglo-Dutch energy group, on Thursday said it would cut significantly its refining and marketing business this year as it predicted the economy would not make a quick recovery.
The company said it would cut 560,000 barrels a day - 15 per cent of its refining capacity - and shed a further 1,000 jobs in that part of its business in order to create savings of another $1bn.
The cuts came as Shell announced its adjusted net profit in the fourth quarter of last year fell 75 per cent from a year earlier, to $1.18bn. Downstream results, also on a current cost of supply measure, showed a loss of $1.76bn compared with earnings of $561m in the fourth quarter of 2008. They included a net charge of $1.3bn.
Shell shed 5,000 jobs in 2009 and cut costs by more than $2bn. Last year it sold $1.2bn worth of downstream assets, bringing the five-year total to $11bn. It has announced it will shut its Montreal refinery and is in the process of selling refineries in the UK and Germany.
"Downstream [refining and marketing] is facing some tough times," Shell said in a statement. "There is a significant overhang of industry refining capacity, exacerbated by the economic downturn. That's why we have initiatives under way to refocus Shell's downstream footprint into fewer, more profitable markets with growth potential, through disposals and selective growth investment."
Many of Shell's competitors are also shedding their downstream assets. Statoil of Norway, for example, said on Wednesday it would spin off its entire retail operations.
In the past 10 years Shell has cut its retail network by 29.8 per cent, according to PFC Energy, the industry consultants.
Deutsche Bank's investment banking and trading businesses gained from strong market conditions to push Germany's biggest bank to €5bn ($6.9bn) of net income in 2009.
Josef Ackermann, chief executive, said there was a "clear trend to recovery and stabilisation of financial markets" but that it would still take time to work through the effects of the crisis.
Deutsche Bank's fourth-quarter net income of €1.3bn surpassed expectations in spite of a quarter-on-quarter decline in sales and trading revenues, but was influenced by a tax benefit of €554m, mainly the result of recognition of deferred tax assets in the US.
The bank also took a €225m charge in the quarter for the presumed costs of the UK "supertax" on bankers' bonuses, which has been announced but not yet introduced.
Deutsche Bank also followed US investment banks in announcing a relatively low compensation ratio, a partial indication of the size of bonuses it has been paying. The compensation ratio was 40 per cent in 2009, Deutsche Bank said, substantially down on more than 70 per cent last year and also lower than before the crisis.
The bank has started to pay more bonuses over several years, in line with an agreement with Germany's bank supervisor that anticipates international pay measures. Without the effect of severance payments and the UK bonus tax, the ratio would have been 37 per cent, Deutsche Bank said. Mr Ackermann had said the bank would spread the burden of the planned UK tax across the bank to avoid it falling only on UK employees.
The annual results include pre-tax profits of €3.5bn from Deutsche Bank's corporate banking and securities division, including its investment banking, advisory and trading businesses, which last year lost €8.5bn. Annual revenues were €16.2bn, after writedowns of €925m.
A number of Deutsche's other businesses, including retail and corporate banking, asset and wealth management showed a subdued performance with annual revenues lower than in 2008.
Anticipating regulatory changes that will force banks to hold more capital, Deutsche Bank boosted tier one capital ratio, a key measure of balance sheet strength, to a high of 12.6 per cent - compared with less than 9 per cent before the financial crisis.
The "core" tier one ratio, excluding so-called hybrid capital that regulators are viewing with increasing reservations, stood at 8.7 per cent.
Provisions for the quarter rose slightly compared with the third quarter to €560m.
In 2008 the bank made its worst-ever net loss of €3.9bn, including a loss of €4.8bn in the fourth quarter when the financial market crisis was at its height after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Mr Ackermann said then that the crisis had exposed weaknesses at the bank, which shut down most of its proprietary trading operations. But in December he announced a target of €10bn for annual pre-tax profits from operations by 2011.
In a statement on Thursday he said: "Deutsche Bank achieved a great deal in 2009. We delivered very substantial profitability, while simultaneously reducing risk and balance sheet leverage. We used these good results to bolster our capital base, and our capital ratios are stronger than ever.
"We also took decisive strategic action in 2009. We re-positioned core businesses, and widened our scope for profitable growth, both by organic investments and via targeted acquisitions."
Earnings per share were €7.59 in 2009 compared with a loss per share of €7.61 in 2008 while Deutsche Bank expects to pay a dividend of 75 cents, compared with 50 cents in 2008.
City moved in for Gago after their attempt to bring McDonald Mariga from Parma broke down and he joined Inter Milan instead.
Real Madrid's sporting director Jorge Valdano said: "They had nothing prepared, not even one document signed.
"They had not reached an agreement with the player and they would have needed to do everything in 40 minutes."
Gago's agent Marcello Lombilla added. "City used us. This has never happened to me before.
"I don't want to talk about the figures that City were offering because they approached Madrid without even knowing there wasn't physically enough time to put something together."
City believe they were only held up because they respected Fifa rules on transfers which state that a player should not be approached by a club until they have agreed a transfer fee.
According to Michael Peppiatt, the biographer of Francis Bacon, who is now writing a major book on Giacometti, “he stands out in the 20th century as the artist who reconnected art to the great traditions of the Egyptians and other ancient civilisations, capturing the precariousness of man’s existence, the nobility and vulnerability of the human condition, which is what all great art is fundamentally about.”
Always one of the most expensive modern artists, Giacometti appeals to collectors of modern and contemporary art.
Before Wednesday night, his auction record stood at 27.5 million dollars.
Last November, another sculpture, ‘Falling Man’, easily beat its 12 million dollar estimate in New York, selling for 18 million dollars. The added appeal of ‘Walking Man’ was that it was a rare lifetime cast of one the artist’s most admired works.
Before the sale, everyone in the art trade knew it was going to fetch a huge price; it was just a question of how much.
The American art dealer, Larry Gagosian, who handles the Giacometti estate, was known to have another cast of the same sculpture priced at 45 million dollars.
Even before the bidding was officially opened, hands were going up in the air. Bidding then leapt from 9 million pounds to 12 million pounds in one go.
As it reached its pre-sale high estimate of 18 million pounds there were six bidders battling it out – mostly over the phone through Sotheby’s representatives.
One dealer in the room, London based Ezra Nahmad, dropped out at 26 million pounds, and left it to Philip Hook, Sotheby’s London based specialist and William Ruprecht, Sotheby’s President and Chief Executive Officer based in New York, to slug it out until Hook’s bidder was finally victorious.
Sotheby’s was not saying who the buyer was.
Despite the rapid evolution of music media in the past 30 years, from vinyl to MP3s, the industry is acutely aware that the way we listen to music has hardly changed – it has remained a passive process, allowing little interactivity.
The album format celebrated its 100th birthday last year, and while albums and singles remain the mainstay of the music industry, technologists, innovators and composers are coming up with new tools to help modern listeners engage with the songs they love.
One of these is MXP4, a program that allows people to mix their favourite tracks in virtually any way they like. You can add drums, take away backing music, or mash two songs together. The user interface is very simple and built for people with no DJing experience.
The music of about 70 artists, including Michael Jackson, has been licensed to the platform. The tool can be found on the websites of the participating record labels, who are looking for and innovative ways to compete with the huge volume of free music available online – often illegally. The team behind MPX4 say it offers new ways to rejuvenate artists’ back catalogues, potentially creating new revenue streams for musicians and labels.
“We offer music fans different ways to experience their favourite artist’s work,” says Albin Serviant, MXP4’s chief executive. “It’s all about enriching the music experience and adding new features. This allows fans to play with a song they may have heard a thousand times and breathe new life into it.”
RjDj is another application in the same vein. This is available as a standalone app on the iPhone. Co-founded by Michael Breidenbruecker, one of the creators of Last.fm, it allows music to be influenced by different stimuli, such as the sounds around you or the speed you are walking at while listening to a tune.
RjDj has also started to join forces with leading artists; it recently worked with Little Boots to build an app which allows listeners to either hear her latest singles, or turn on the RjDj function - letting her tunes be manipulated by the outside world in real time. Each experience can be recorded, whether it’s the sound of the listener singing along, or the version made unique by their surroundings and actions at a particular moment.
Crucially, both MXP4 and RjDj let users share their creations via sites such as Twitter, creating further opportunities to enrich the collaborative experience between artist and listener.
Robert Thomas, a reactive music producer from RjDj, said: “Our tool opens up new possibilities for both artist and listeners, and allows much more flexibility. CD and vinyl are the same thing conceptually – they allow people to listen to music frozen in its current form by virtue of it being recorded.
“Our software allows old and new music to change, be added to and grow with time and its listeners.”
Last week at Midem 2010, a conference addressing the challenges facing the music business in the digital age, a new type of music file was launched. MusicDNA, created by the technologists behind MP3, the standard format for digital music files, is a new deluxe format which will be able to include lyrics, videos, artwork and blog posts – all of which will be continually updated – as well as the music.
It will launch in spring, although its developers still need to get the major labels on board and work on a pricing strategy as it will undoubtedly be more expensive than a normal MP3. It will directly compete with Apple’s iTunes LP, which was created to encourage people to buy more albums by offering added content such as bonus tracks, artwork, lyrics and video interviews.
However, Mark Mulligan, vice president and research director of industry analysts Forrester Research, said that Apple’s attempts to add value to the album experience have not gone far enough: “Essentially all Steve Jobs [Apple’s chief executive] did was add artwork and a few lyrics, which should be the standard offering. So-called innovations like the iTunes LP need to go further. People should just pay once to get everything that artist does over the next year in one file which is regularly updated.”
Mulligan believes that innovative tools such as MXP4 and RJDJ are moves in the right direction to keep music relevant in the digital age, but there is no longer one answer which will solve this issue. “The future of a successful music industry, if there can be one in the digital age, will come from a rich tapestry of different tools, service and products,” he says.
However, Mulligan admits that most people do not want to be anything other than a passive listener. “The battle to win over the passive audience, who have effectively stopped buying music in the digital era, has already been lost,” he says.
“These innovations are to engage those music aficionados who still buy loads of music. They are the ones the music industry needs to focus on – if they don’t continue to engage them, they really could be no-one left who is willing to heavily and regularly invest in music in years to come.”
The veteran broadcaster has signed up to host Attenborough's First Animals, which will use fossil records and computer effects to throw light on creatures which have been extinct for millions of years.
Sir David shows no sign of wishing to reduce his workload as he enters his mid-80s. The new series follows on from Frozen Planet, which required the presenter to travel to both the Arctic and Antarctic for filming,
Frozen Planet will be broadcast in 2011 on BBC One, with Attenborough's First Animals due to hit screens a year later.
The two shows are set to cement Sir David's reputation as one of the nation's most loved and respected television presenters.
His previous triumphs include the Life series of widlife programmes, as well as The Blue Planet and Wildlife on One.
Speaking about his desire to continue filming, he said recently: "My legs don't work and people say, 'You should have a knee replacement', but when you are 83 there would be another year or 18 months of pain and stuff, and by that time you are 85, 86.
"Come on! We are mortal and you cannot make yourself a 26-year-old again. You might as well cope with it the way it is going."
Chainrai has taken over the 90 per cent shareholding that was held by the club’s previous owner, Ali Al Faraj, after becoming frustrated that the Fratton Park side had missed deadlines to repay him money he was owed from loans made to the club earlier in the season.
Chainrai had loaned around £17 million to Faraj to keep Portsmouth afloat through his company Portpin, secured against the club’s future television revenue, Fratton Park itself and Faraj’s stake.
But Portsmouth have repeatedly failed to repay their debts to Chainrai, whose patience snapped on Wednesday.
After instructing his lawyers to act, Faraj’s 90 per cent stake was frozen and transferred to Chainrai, who therefore becomes the club’s fourth owner of a tumultuous campaign.
Sacha Gaydamak and Sulaiman al-Fahim have also been in control of the stricken south coast club at other points this season.
Chainrai has not commented directly on effectively taking charge at Portsmouth, but has moved to reassure their increasingly exasperated fans that the club have a viable future.
However, Chainrai's aim is merely to stabilise the club before selling it on to new owners in order to recoup his investment.
“Portpin have made substantial loans to Portsmouth to try and ensure the club’s future,” he said. “Portpin will continue to work for the best interests of the club.”
A Portsmouth spokesman said: "Portpin have exercised a clause in their contractual agreement to take a controlling interest.
"They are taking control on a temporary basis to allow new owners to be found.
"Portpin's aim is to come in and stabilise the club, sort out the business with the winding up order from HMRC and sell it on to new owners.
"New directors will be appointed to the board and Peter Storrie will remain as chief executive and will be running the club."
In another bizarre episode, the Premier League has told Portsmouth it will have no direct dealings with Daniel Azougy, who is working as a consultant with the club, and even asked the convicted fraudster to leave its offices prior to one meeting with club officials.
Telegraph Sport can also disclose that Azougy, an Israeli lawyer, was questioned by immigration officials when he entered the country at Heathrow Airport, though he was eventually granted leave to enter on a six-month business visa.
The company said, however, it was starting to see an upturn in confidence among the small-business advertisers that bring in the vast majority of its revenue, which would be reflected in its results for the three months to the end of June.
"We are beginning to see some confidence return in our current sales canvasses," Yell said in a statement on Thursday.
The company said it expected earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the full year to end-March of at least £600m, compared with £816m for fiscal 2009.
Highly leveraged Yell's revenues for the first nine months of the year were £1.523bn, a decline of 13.3 per cent at constant exchange rates, after a 13.2 per cent decline in the first six months.
Adjusted EBITDA fell 20.5 per cent at constant currencies to £476.5m. At the pre-tax level, profits fell to £75.1m from 175.3m last time.
Yell's main markets are Britain and the United States. It also operates in Spain and Latin America.
Confidence among British businesses climbed to a six-year high in the fourth quarter. But the sentiment of U.S. small business owners stalled in December, hurt by weak sales and worries about government policies.
Yell avoided a debt-for-equity swap late last year through a refinancing and rights issue.
Nonetheless, its shares have continued to slide, losing 18 per cent of their value since the refinancing was announced in November.
Mike Lynch, chief executive, said on Wednesday that sales jumped 53pc in the three months to December 31 in a sign of economic "recovery kicking in".
"We have seen a change in sentiment in the fourth quarter and have started to see people do more discretionary things," Mr Lynch said.
Autonomy, which provides software to more than 20,000 companies that is used to search emails and phone records, said its customers are now also increasing spending in other areas, including website optimisation.
"It's winter with snowdrops," he said. "We are very confident in an upturn [the new products] will do very well." Mr Lynch said its new products, which are designed primarily for airlines and supermarkets, allow companies to update their websites in real-time.
Autonomy reported sales of $223m (£139m) in the three months to the end of December, compared to $145m a year earlier. Pre-tax profit in the period increased by 36pc to $95m
However, Mr Lynch said the company did not sign any large deals in the fourth quarter. He said the blizzards affecting the East Coast of America may have delayed some key contracts in the pipeline.
Over the full year revenue increased by 47pc to $740m.
Paul Morland, analyst at Astaire Securities, said the company was "bang on forecasts" for profits and revenue, but said he was still concerned about the company's ability to turn earnings into cash.
That's what Vicky Botwright expects to do at this year's British National Squash Championships, partly for a natter with friends, but also because there are such an entertaining variety of good women players that you could know all about them and still not be able to pick the winner.
Take Jenny Duncalf. She has beaten the runaway World No 1twice in successionand became the highest world ranked British player, so you might think she is firm favourite for a successful defence of the title.
Favourite yes. But not firm enough for confident predictions. It says much about the size of the leading group that it would no huge surprise if even so excellent a player were denied by any of four others.
The most likely to do that is Alison Waters, who beat the titleholder Duncalf in the final two years ago. But it could also be Laura Massaro, the 2008 runner-up, or Madeline Perry, the British Open runner-up, or even Tania Bailey, another former British National Champion, who is still bravely making her way back after so many setbacks.
It was tempting to see whether Botwright had a feeling who might prevail. But wisely she sidestepped that little minefield, rather memorably expressing instead her regrets about not joining in. “I don't think baby Boswell would be that happy running around so much,” she said.
What the former England No 1 might have said is that Duncalf seems to have made a stride forward recently. A tighter focus and a steelier mindset were integral to her becoming the first person in four years to beat Nicol David twice in a row.
They are qualities which Duncalf may especially need this week; especially as her only previous title defence hit the buffers before the final. Just one woman, Cassie Jackman, has managed a successful defence in the past decade.
There were also moments last year when Waters looked the most dangerous British player, displaying ability to pressure opponents with a volleying of a quality which few possess.
Bailey, though, is one who does. Most unbiased observers hope she has regained the fitness needed to capitalise on this ability, and if she has, she will be a contender.
Perry is almost always that. The courageous Irish woman beat both David and Waters to reach the British Open final five months ago here; returning to the scene of those successes could inspire more.
Massaro is still strengthening her self-belief, as a career-high World No 7 last year indicates. Her recent adoption of one surname, that of sports psychologist Danny Massaro whom she married in 2007 and who has helped her mentally, may have a particular meaning.
Likely then, this handful of front-runners will emerge. And even if Mrs Boswell can't now make it six, she might be around to give her opinion, provided you don't let on, which of the five will prevail.
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Bad news for energy consumers continues to come thick and fast. Bills have more than doubled in the past six years, and could rise a further 25 per cent in the next decade according to a wide-ranging report published yesterday by Ofgem. But even more worrying was the watchdog's analysis of Britain's energy security – or lack of it. Without decisive action, warns Ofgem, there could soon be times when energy is not just expensive but unavailable at any price.
The last time Britain suffered a winter this bitter, the phrase "energy security" meant having a full coal scuttle. Now it's all about natural gas. Forty years ago, few houses had central heating and those that did ran on imported oil. Today, following the North Sea bonanza of the 1970s and 1980s, gas heats almost every home and generates over 40 per cent of our electricity, making Britain the world's fifth largest consumer. Only the US, Canada, Russia and Iran guzzle more.
But these days Britain's gas supply is apparently on thin ice. Until the beginning of this year, National Grid had only once been forced to issue a Gas Balancing Alert – warning the market that supply might not meet demand and urging suppliers to pump harder. Since then it has issued another four.
The first came early in the big freeze, when demand was running 30 per cent higher than a normal January day. A fault at Troll, one of the main Norwegian gas fields, caused imports through the Langeled pipeline to drop sharply and the wholesale gas price to jump from 30p to 60p per therm. Eventually, more gas started to flow and the danger passed, but not before electricity generators had switched from gas to coal-fired power stations, and industrial customers with interruptible supply contracts had been cut off, disrupting businesses around the country.
"The market worked," said a National Grid spokesman, keen to play down the story, "it all sounds more exciting than it really is." But two days later it happened again, as demand hit a record high of 454 million cubic metres (mcm) and the Norwegian supply failed a second time, causing a loss of 70mcm. Almost 100 major industrial customers were cut off, and a quarter were still without supplies the following day, when demand set another record high of 468mcm.
By that weekend Gas Balancing Alerts were beginning to look like Groundhog Day, and the following Monday, yet another was issued when Shell stopped production at Ormen Lange, another big Norwegian field, ironically because of bad weather. "This shows that if there's any stress on the system we're very, very vulnerable," says John Hall, chairman of EnergyQuote, an energy trading company.
None of this would have happened a few years ago, when North Sea production meant Britain was more than self-sufficient in gas. But after a 30-year boom, UK output finally peaked in 2000 and started to fall – slumping more than a third by 2008. In 2004 Britain became a net importer for the first time, and National Grid expects we will have to import three-quarters of our gas by 2015. That makes Britain increasingly vulnerable to any future supply interruptions like those last month, or when Russia next cuts off Ukraine in their long-running dispute over gas prices.
The Government insists energy security is enhanced by having a range of sources of imported gas: pipelines from Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway, along with three new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals in Wales and Kent, where tankers can deliver from as far afield as Qatar and Trinidad & Tobago.
But having the infrastructure does not guarantee the gas will come to Britain. According to John Hall, countries like France and Germany that have long-term contracts with major suppliers such as Norway are far better placed than Britain, which buy on the open market. "We have the import facilities but we don't have the contracts to safeguard supplies when things go wrong," says Mr Hall. "Britain comes after everyone else as far as Norway is concerned."
Britain's rising import dependency makes it increasingly vital to have substantial amounts of gas in storage to draw down in a crisis, and the Tories jumped on the spate of alerts in the New Year to charge the Government with negligence over the issue. Britain has 4.3 billion cubic metres of storage capacity, which amounts to less than 5 per cent of annual consumption, compared with more than 20 per cent in Germany and almost 25 per cent in France. With British storage already depleted by winter demand, Shadow Environment Secretary Greg Clark said remaining stores would last only eight days at current levels of consumption. In fact, storage levels have fallen far lower during previous crises – down to less than three days' supply last February, which is when Russia last cut off supplies to Ukraine.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband accused the Tories of using meaningless statistics, and in one sense he's right, but not necessarily in a good way. Expressing storage in terms of days' supply overstates the safety margin, because the gas could never be withdrawn that quickly. Three quarters of Britain's gas storage is held at Rough, a depleted gas field off the Yorkshire coast operated by Centrica, where suppliers can deposit gas during the summer when prices are low, and withdraw it for sale in the winter when prices are higher. During the recent alerts, Rough was delivering gas at its maximum rate – 45mcm per day – which represents just 10 per cent of current demand.
The vulnerability of having so much storage in a single field was highlighted three years ago, when a fire at Rough closed the facility for six months. The closure came just two months after an earlier Ukraine crisis and, had the two coincided, the consequences could have been severe. "We were incredibly lucky with the timing," says Professor Jonathan Stern, director of Gas Research at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies.
The Government acknowledges the need for more gas storage but has so far failed to get any built – although it recently approved the construction of a new facility at Northwich in Cheshire that will expand storage by just 0.25 per cent of annual consumption. A number of commercial proposals exist that would take British storage capacity much nearer to continental levels, but the industry complains bitterly about planning and tax rules, and about the role of the Crown Estate, which owns most of the seabed around Britain. One senior industry insider accuses the estate of demanding extortionate rents that make planned storage projects uneconomic, and wants its remit changed to take account of the country's energy security. "That the government has failed to change the Crown Estate's mandate beggars belief", he says.
Luckily the recent alerts came at a time when the world is awash with gas, the result of new LNG production capacity in the Middle East, new "non-conventional" sources of gas in the US, and the recession, which has depressed demand in Europe by some 10 per cent. The International Energy Agency expects this glut to continue until around 2015, but many analysts predict the market will then tighten sharply. "Around the middle of the decade we expect a perfect storm of falling domestic gas production, economic recovery and tightness in the global LNG market," says Professor Stern, "and we might not get very much warning. It could flip in a matter of weeks."
Britain's vulnerability to interruptions in the gas supply could be worsened by our response to the "energy gap" resulting from the closure of ageing coal and nuclear power stations over the next decade. In total, the closures amount to 20 gigawatts (GW), or one third of peak electricity demand. The Government hopes much of the gap will be filled by renewables, and last month announced the companies that have won the right to build offshore windfarms under its ambitious plans to develop 32GW offshore by 2020. But given the Government's record on renewables, many fear the targets will not be met. If so, the "energy gap" is likely to be filled by new gas-fired power stations.
Figures from New Power, an industry journal, show that 15GW of new gas-fired stations are either under construction or have received planning permission, with a further 15GW in the wings. Editor Dominic Maclaine says "there is a new dash for gas in power generation". That is likely to raise the proportion of electricity generated from gas even further, and increase Britain's vulnerability in the case of supply disruptions. In that case, without a major increase in storage capacity, future gas supply crises could also leave us in the dark.
Yesterday Ofgem finally acknowledged what has been obvious for years: liberalised markets cannot deliver energy security in the era of carbon reduction and competition over dwindling resources. Its recommendations are well made, in particular for a minimum carbon price. The Government must take energy markets by the scruff of the neck – and quickly.
David Strahan is author of 'The Last Oil Shock: A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man', www.lastoilshock.com