The situation is so critical that the company which distributes gas throughout Britain is preparing to cut supplies from some industrial users to ensure householders are not left shivering, the Sunday Telegraph said.

Although the winter as a whole has been relatively mild, the last few weeks have brought a cold snap, with freezing temperatures continuing into mid-March, prompting heavy gas use as people crank up their central heating.

While Britain has its own gas fields in the North Sea, diminishing supplies means the country has to rely on strategic reserves during prolonged cold spells, and storage facilities are running low, the report said.

A spokesman for gas distribution company National Grid Transco confirmed the concerns, saying: "If we get a further prolonged cold snap steps may have to be taken."

Wholesale gas futures prices are already 20 percent higher than at the same time last year, translating into a likely 30 percent rise in heating bills for domestic users, the paper added.

At the end of last week, multinational chemicals manufacturer Ineos Chlor released a report demanding the British government take action to avert what it labelled the worst energy crisis in Britain since the Arab oil embargo of the mid-1970s.

"We have depleted UK strategic supply of gas in the last two weeks -- just like that," Ineos Chlor chief executive Tom Crotty was quoted as saying by the Sunday Telegraph.

"Our view is that it's an issue of national security. There is a fundamental problem here for the UK that needs to be addressed."

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.