Winter Storm Emma strains British gas supplies

March 1 (UPI) -- Severe weather striking the United Kingdom and parts of Europe means there's a deficit of natural gas on the market, a British utility said Thursday.

Utility company National Grid issued a warning early Thursday because of supply issues stemming from winter Storm Emma. The Met Office, the British weather service, issued a series of warnings for Thursday and Friday, forecasting heavy snow in some areas and gale-force winds.

"Interruptions to power supplies and mobile phone coverage are also possible," the latest warning read.

Low temperatures are expected at around 24 degrees Fahrenheit. With the winter weather hanging around at least through Friday, the National Grid reported demand was putting a strain on domestic supplies and a deficit warning was issued to the market.

"This is an indication to the market that we'd like more gas to be made available to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the national gas network," the utility said in an emailed statement.

Gassco, a Norwegian company that pipes gas to Great Britain, said two of its facilities -- the SEGAL pipeline system and Kollsnes processing plant -- were down because of weather-related issues.

The SEGAL system could be down for as long as four days.

The shortages highlight the need to use more domestic resources to satisfy local demand, according to trade group U.K. Onshore Oil and Gas.

"The United Kingdom is worryingly dependent on gas imports and this is forecast to increase to 80 percent by 2035," Chief Executive Ken Cronin said in a statement emailed to UPI. "Given that nearly 50 percent of our electricity is produced by gas and 84 percent of our homes are heated with it, the need to ensure we have our own homegrown source of gas rather than pursuing this continued over-reliance on imports has today become very evident."

Domestic development onshore is in its infancy. The British government estimates shale basins in the country may hold more than 1.3 quadrillion cubic feet of natural gas, a level the government said could help an economy with natural gas imports on pace to increase from 45 percent of demand in 2011 to 76 percent by 2030.