This morning, Ofgem published a statutory consultation ("the consultation") on proposed modifications to National Gas's Gas Transporter Licence and financial instruments.

The modification, if enacted, is intended to enable National Gas to facilitate a proposed agreement to maintain Britain’s gas import capacity at Winter 2025/26 levels for this winter and beyond. This follows previous decisions by some interconnector operators to reduce capacity in response to a challenging commercial landscape.  

While the proposed licence framework could support arrangements with either continental interconnector in future, the current proposal relates to an agreement with Interconnector Limited (INT) to maintain existing import capability.

The full details of the proposed scope of the modification and the requirement are outlined in the statutory consultation document.

As the Gas System Operator, National Gas recognises the importance of this proposal and consultation. This statement is intended to provide further information and context on National Gas's role in the proposed agreement to support the industry's engagement with the consultation process.

As detailed in the statutory consultation, National Gas has facilitated a proposed agreement to strengthen Great Britain’s energy resilience, as defined by the N-1 Infrastructure Standard, under certain very unlikely high-stress circumstances, including a 1-in-20-year peak gas demand day.

It is important to be clear that this is an assessment of system resilience, not of gas availability, and should not be interpreted as an indication that gas shortages are expected.

The consultation sets out in detail the context and process undertaken by DESNZ, Ofgem, National Gas and NESO to understand potential solutions to strengthen Great Britain's resilience in the very unlikely event of future stress scenarios. A range of options were assessed, and maintaining Great Britain's import capability through the continental interconnectors was collectively identified as an important and viable option.

The Government subsequently requested that National Gas explore available import capability options. This period of engagement has resulted in a proposed agreement with Interconnector Limited to maintain capacity at Winter 2025/26 levels, subject to consultation and regulatory approval, for Winter 2026/27 and subsequent winter periods.

The proposed agreement means that Interconnector Limited will, today, publish a market notice on its website confirming the increase in technical capacity offerings for Great British imports to Winter 2025/26 levels. This increased technical capacity will be reflected in this year's Winter Outlook analysis, due to be published tomorrow, Friday 23 October 2026.

As the Gas System Operator, National Gas welcomes this consultation, and the proposed arrangements contained within it, as an important step in strengthening Britain's energy resilience and supporting security of supply.

However, as highlighted in the Government's Gas System in Transition: Security of Supply consultation and interim response, the evolving demand and supply landscape is creating ongoing challenges for market arrangements. Enduring challenges have also previously been identified in NESO's Gas Supply Security Assessment, National Gas's previous Winter Outlooks, and in our response to the Government's Security of Supply consultation, published in February.

Progress has been made in recent months through the Gas System in Transition programme, and the Government has taken important steps to address these challenges. This work must now continue at pace, with a full response published as soon as possible.

As the Gas System Operator, we encourage market participants and the industry more widely to engage with the Ofgem statutory consultation, which closes on Friday 20 November 2026.