British Gas owner Centrica (LON:CSA) is on track to meet full year expectations despite predicting a loss at its storage business which includes the UK’s strategic North Sea gas store, Rough.
In an update to the market, the firm said it has “delivered good strategic progress” in 2024.
It pointed to the recent announcement of plans to extend the lives of four nuclear power stations, Heysham 1 and 2, Hartlepool and Torness in Scotland along with French electricity giant, EDF (PAR:EDF).
It confirmed it expects 2024 full year earnings per share to be “broadly” in line with analyst consensus, adding a caveat about the “usual uncertainties” as it looks to the end of the year including risks of the weather, commodity prices and asset performance.
However, it said operating profit in its infrastructure business would also be in line with expectation, including “a second half loss for Centrica Energy Storage+”.
It added it expects another loss in this side of the business in 2025 in the range of £50 to £100 million.
The firm remained confident enough to announce a boon for shareholders, and announced a £300m extension to its share buyback programme.
It said that the extension means it has repurchased £1.5 billion of its ordinary shares since November 2022. Today’s buyback is expected to complete no later than the end of September 2025, it said.
Recently Centrica revealed it has begun decommissioning platform infrastructure at the depleted Rough gas field off the coast of Yorkshire.
Centrica intends to redevelop the gas storage facility at the depleted Rough gas field in the North Sea, which was decommissioned in 2017 and then reopened in 2022, into a hydrogen storage facility.
A spokesperson for the energy company told Energy Voice that it has the “cash to invest” in the £2 billion redevelopment of Rough, but that it requires a cap-and-floor subsidy to operate the field as a hydrogen storage facility.
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