Big Oil pays hefty price as UK electricity suppliers fail

Big Oil pays hefty price as UK electricity suppliers fail

As the number of failed British electricity suppliers continues to rise, two of the world’s largest oil and gas giants are feeling the ripple effect.

On Wednesday, UK-based energy supplier Pure Planet announced it had gone out of business after minority shareholder BP Plc terminated its gas and power supply agreement. Less than three weeks earlier, Shell’s loss-making retail power business was appointed by a UK regulator to take on quarter of a million new customers.

Unprecedented volatility in power and natural gas markets has squeezed suppliers as surging prices crush their margins, forcing many into administration. The UK’s Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng warned last week that more companies would likely fail and the government will not bail them out.