UK Issues 'No Deal' Brexit Gas Trading Guidance

The UK government October 12 issued guidance on trading gas with the EU, in the event of a ‘no deal Brexit’.

Insisting such a ‘no deal scenario’ on March 29 2019 remains unlikely, given mutual interests on both sides, London said its guidance is to enable businesses to make informed preparations.

It strongly advises that UK gas market participants should register under the EU's Regulation on Energy Market Integrity and Transparency (Remit) with an EU regulatory authority for the purposes of market monitoring, so as to avoid any disruption to cross-border trade or trading within EU wholesale energy markets. Some firms may have done this already, through their subsidiaries.

Trading gas across EU borders is governed in part by the EU Network Code on Capacity Allocation Mechanisms, which establishes the rules for capacity allocation on gas interconnector pipelines, the advisory adds: “Interconnector operators should engage with the relevant EU national regulators (in Ireland, the Netherlands, or Belgium) in good time ahead of the UK’s exit from the EU to confirm whether those countries intend to continue using the Capacity Allocation Mechanisms Code as the basis for their trading with the UK and understand any requirements for the reassessment of their access rules.”

Such interconnector operators will need to engage with Irish, Dutch and Belgian energy regulators if there will be changes to Transmission System Operator certification. The note adds that Ofgem and its Northern Ireland counterpart regulator Uregni would try to help with such engagement.

The full October 12 note from the UK government’s Business and Energy (BEIS) department can be accessed here  - along with a July 2018 guidance note from Ofgem.

There is a similar BEIS advisory for electricity trading, should the UK crash out of the EU without a deal, also published October 12 and accessible here.