Response to Ofgem's statement on wholesale and retail prices

British Gas response to Ofgem's statement on wholesale and retail prices

In response to Ofgem's statement on wholesale and retail prices, Ian Peters, Managing Director of Residential Energy at British Gas said:

"We buy our gas well in advance, so movements in wholesale prices, up or down, do not feed through immediately to retail prices. We have other costs that are rising - regulated transport and distribution costs, environmental costs, metering costs. We are certainly not increasing profits on the back of lower wholesale gas prices - our trading statement last month downgraded profit expectations.

“The details of our hedging strategy are commercially sensitive. To disclose our hedging would risk tacit coordination which is not appropriate in a competitive market. So we will not comment on how we have reacted to specific events."

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