40,000 firms face higher bills as gas supplier shuts up shop

THOUSANDS of businesses are facing a surge in their energy bills this winter after a gas shipping firm warned it will no longer be able to operate.

CNG Group, a Yorkshire-based wholesale firm that also sells gas to about 15 small energy suppliers, told its customers that it is withdrawing from the market and that they should find alternatives.

CNG is now looking for buyers for its commercial supply arm, which has around 40,000 small and medium-sized firms on the books.

One of its ex-customers told the BBC that CNG’s business clientele could see their energy bills quadruple as the soaring cost of natural gas was passed down.

Businesses do not have an equivalent of the price cap on domestic energy, leaving many of them exposed to rising prices that increase their costs.

CNG’s deadline for offers is thought to be as soon as the end of this week, according to Sky News.

Boss Paul Stanley said in a letter to customers that the past few weeks had been ‘unprecedented’ for energy markets.

The company has been hit hard by customer bankruptcies, leaving it sitting on unpaid bills for gas shipments, straining its finances. Mr Stanley said he expected more energy suppliers to fail in the coming weeks.

His firm’s woes will spell trouble for FTSE 100 mining giant Glencore, which CNG said was a ‘long standing supplier and shareholder’ in its last set of accounts.

A spate of British energy suppliers have collapsed in recent weeks as energy costs surged.

Two firms, BP-backed Pure Planet and Colorado Energy, went bust this week, joining failed brands including Avro Energy, People’s Energy and Igloo.

There are concerns that CNG’s decision to exit the market could spark a domino effect, taking out even more providers.

The crisis has forced hundreds of thousands of British households to be shifted to new providers through the ‘supplier of last resort’ system run by regulator Ofgem.

Ministers have so far been reluctant to change this process.