Gas price surge threatens bigger bills
Ofgem to launch energy probeA British gas trader said the surge in forward prices since the start of April had been overdone and that prices were already high enough to attract plenty of gas from Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands next winter.
"There's already healthy premium to European contract prices. Yet you will still see people buying because oil has gone up," he said.
"There's nothing intelligent about what's going on."
Britain's big six household energy suppliers have all raised their gas and power prices once this year, blaming rising wholesale energy prices.
Because utilities buy much of the energy they need to supply their customers on forward contracts, this year's rise in wholesale prices has not been passed on to most consumers yet.
But unless there is a sustained decline in wholesale prices, gas and electricity bills will inevitably get bigger for everybody.
When that happens will depend on what terms suppliers have bought the energy for their customers and how long they are prepared to wait before passing the higher wholesale costs on.
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