A fter the overdue approval of the Jackdaw field in the North Sea, here comes a reminder that Britain still imports almost 60% of its gas and the stuff has to come from somewhere. We’re now doing a deal with Belgium to ensure enough supply can flow through a connecting pipeline this winter should a “low-probability but high-impact stress event”, to quote the regulatory mouthful, occur.

To be fair, the arrangement to maintain capacity from Belgium is a belt-and-braces measure. The imagined events do sound genuinely stressful and may never happen. A critical piece of infrastructure, such as the two import terminals in Milford Haven to bring in liquefied natural gas (LNG) into Britain, would have to be out of action during a prolonged cold snap in which demand is very high.

Equally, though, the “high-impact” bit matters: we’re talking about having enough supplies to run gas-fired power stations at full pelt if necessary to keep the lights on.…