Some gas offtakers, including power stations and major industrial users, face multimillion-pound hikes in network charges from October this year. But it is not clear which users will face the charges or how high they will be, because the process for calculating the charges is in disarray.

One market participant, Triton Energy, said it may have to invest in its own pipeline, bypassing National Grid, if some proposed changes to the regime are taken forward (see interview elsewhere in this issue).