The government is in addresses with energy establishment Centrica aboutre-opening a giant gas storehouse installation in case European inventories from Russia are cut off.
The conversations form part of contingency plans being exploring ahead of downtime amid the war in Ukraine.
Centrica's installation in Yorkshire was mothballed in 2017 when the government refused to subsidise it.
The BBC understands the government may now be prepared to contribute tore-establishing a strategic gas reserve.
The addresses are part of plans for a" reasonable worst case script" in which Russia shuts off all gas inventories to Europe performing in Norwegian gas inventories being diverted from the UK to Europe.
Those plans also include extending the life of the many remaining coal fired power shops in the UK. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng wrote to the possessors EDF, Drax and Uniper in April and on Friday of last week instructed National Grid's Electricity System Operator to explore what would be demanded to extend product.
The government has also been in touch with EDF to see what compass was available to extend the life of Hinkley Point B, a nuclear factory in Somerset.
The UK gets a veritably small quantum from natural gas from Russia but is reliant on Norway for a third of inventories. There are enterprises that if Russia cuts off inventories to the European Union or the bloc boycotts inventories because of the Kremlin's attack on Ukraine, Norwegian inventories might be diverted.
The EU relies on Russia for 40 of its gas inventories.
The UK also imports refrigerated natural gas( LNG) from Qatar and the US.
There has been a glut of thawed natural gas arriving in the UK in recent weeks as suppliers use the UK's outstations as a mecca for deliveries to Europe. Tankers have been turned away as there's nowhere to store it.
At full capacity, Centrica's installation in Rough, Yorkshire can store between 10 and 12 days' worth of the UK's gas requirements. Assiduity experts say that if they started work now, it might be suitable to hold up to six days' worth of the UK gas demand by this downtime.
It was shut five times ago when Centrica told the government that the£ 2bn-£ 3bn worth of investment demanded to extend its life made no profitable sense to a private company.
At the time, the government declined to subsidise the installation telling Centrica" if the request does not suppose it makes sense- neither does the government", according to a company bigwig.
Government sources indicated that there was a low probability that Russia would cut off all gas inventories to the EU or Norway would divert inventories from the UK.
They refocused out that numerous Norwegian gas sources are directly connected to the UK and couldn't be diverted.
Nuclear power
Another power source could be the Hinkley Point B nuclear factory which has formerly had its life extended from an original decommissioning date of 2011 and was due to come off line in July of this time.
An EDF bigwig told the BBC it would not be without cost and the timing was veritably tight.
So it isn't inescapably easy and given the check date is July 2022, that is veritably soon to change direction when they're planning on closing in a many weeks."
The BBC understands there has been no formal request to EDF from the government which is staying for substantiation on the business case and the safety counteraccusations of such an extension.
A prophet for The Office for Nuclear Regulation( ONR) said" Any extension to the operating life of a nuclear power station would need a robust safety case produced by the driver to demonstrate that the factory is safe to run for any extended period.
" This substantiation would also be completely assessed by a platoon of expert ONR inspectors."
Talking to Times Radio, government minister Chris Philp described the contingency plans as" a sensible preventative measure given that the gas force coming out of Russia and Ukraine is, for egregious reasons, so heavily disintegrated and we do, of course, use quite a lot of gas to induce electricity."
He added" A lot of ours comes from Norway and in the form of refrigerated natural gas, but of course dislocation to the global gas request will have a" knock on effect" on the UK."
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