The memorandum of understanding between the two companies will lead to Qatar providing Centrica with a steady supply of gas, and the two companies have also agreed to invest jointly in a number of projects.

These projects will comprise of a number of new projects along with some existing ones, and will include investments in liquefied natural gas (LNG), turbines powered by gas, and gas storage amongst other things.

It is not yet clear how much the two companies are planning to spend on these projects or when the first joint deal will be fully completed. However, the move signifies a strengthening of ties between the two companies which is a good thing in these volatile times for the energy industry.

The deal is being billed as good news for the gas supply of Britain, and the CEO of Centrica, Sam Laidlaw, said that the investments will improve the security of the gas supply for the UK.

The deal was announced at the start of the World Petroleum Congress in Doha where the major energy companies were meeting to discuss the turbulent times the industry is having to face at the moment, with issues surrounding the Arab Spring high up on the agenda.

The deal follows on from a previous deal made between the companies back in April 2011 where Qatar agreed to provide Centrica with 2.4 million tonnes of LNG over a period of three years.

The news comes after Centrica had to revise its profit forecasts following the unseasonal autumnal weather which has led to a massive decrease in the household and business consumption of gas and electricity.

For the first 10 months of the year, gas consumption fell by 17% compared to last year, and electricity consumption was down by 3%.

As a result, the operating profit for 2011 could be £100 million lower than expected, and the job cuts are therefore needed to save on costs.

The jobs are to go from the services business, with management and support positions targeted. But the remaining 34,000 employees across the group will also be worried as Centrica confirmed that it could not rule out further cuts.

The company announced that it has to provide value for money for its customers in order to stay competitive, and it therefore had to reduce its costs by cutting back on staff numbers.

British Gas has seen 200,000 customers leave recently, according to the Mirror, after it increased its energy prices during the summer. Perhaps customers have now started to seek out better deals before the winter arrives.

Whether the cuts will make British Gas more competitive is yet to be seen. With higher gas and electricity prices across the board, it is getting more difficult to find a better deal. However, comparison websites are still the place to go if you want to find a cheaper energy deal before the really cold weather hits.

British Gas provides power to nearly half of all the households in the UK, so the fact that it has been letting its customers down is worrying.

Ofgem said in a statement that it had found during an investigation that British Gas had “breached regulations setting standards for the way energy companies handle customer complaints”. This is now being seen as a warning from the regulator to other energy firms to take their complaints process very seriously.

As well as failing to deal with its complaints properly, British Gas also failed to provide important details to customers about how to seek help from the energy ombudsman. Ofgem claimed that the investigation highlighted the “basic failures” in the customer service, in particular when dealing with small business customers.

This comes after Ofgem warned the industry back in March that it would be taking a tougher approach to reforming the market.

British Gas claimed that, because the company has 16 million accounts, the breach was quite minor. However, a spokesman said that “we acknowledge our service fell short of what they should expect from British Gas”. He also claimed that British Gas has made a £4 million investment to meet its regulatory requirements.

People are going to expect more from the energy companies now that they insist on raising their bills so frequently, so this is a tough message from Ofgem that it is not going to take bad service lightly.

The announcement has been met with widespread criticism. Now customers are being encouraged to go online to find a better deal before the rises come into force in August 2011.

So why the increases?

Scottish Power claims that it is responding to a rise in wholesale costs over recent months as well as to the volatile global markets.

However, this is not likely to go down well with the 2.4 million households affected by the increase. The average dual-fuel customer will now have to pay an extra £175 a year following the increase. Consumer Focus described the decision as a “body blow” for customers.

The move comes less than a year since Scottish Power last increased its bills. Back in November 2010 it announced that it was increasing its gas bills by 2% and electricity by 8.9%. However, this latest increase represents a much larger rise and is set to hit customers hard.

Scottish Power said that customers will be notified in June so that they are given 30 days notice before it comes into effect. It also claimed that 700,000 customers will not be affected due to being on fixed or capped tariffs.

However, there are now fears that it could lead to more price rises by the other energy providers. History shows that the large energy providers tend to increase their prices together, meaning other energy customers could also be affected.

It is not yet clear how long the criminals have been in operation, but British Gas (and other gas providers) has acted swiftly to notify and warn customers whom it feels may be susceptible to such illegal activity, and is taking steps to fight it.

British Gas has been successful in recent years in bringing unauthorised gas engineers to justice. Those who have been found guilty of fitting dangerous, carbon-monoxide emitting gas appliances and flues have been heavily fined in court. But, as yet, criminals preying on Britain’s elderly by insisting they need to ‘carry out important gas checks’ in their homes have yet to be caught.

After having their gas boiler, gas cooker or gas fire looked over by their visitor(s), some victims are then complying with demands for cash. They are unaware that they actually qualify for a free gas check, being of pensionable age. The illegal gasfitter then leaves and becomes untraceable.

Sadly, so many of the elderly victims are socially isolated and suffer from loneliness and depression. When a polite and helpful ‘gasfitter’ knocks on their door, they can feel glad of the company, and permit access without even asking to see any kind of credentials or official papers, such as a Gas Safe Register ID card (proof that a gas engineer is legally permitted to carry out gas repairs in the UK).

The older generation also generally possesses a natural respect for (and deference to) officialdom and authority. When a uniformed visitor knocks at their door, their first instinct is not usually one of suspicion, but of compliance. The rogue gasfitters know this and feed on it to almost effortlessly win an elderly person’s confidence, and to then gain entry to their home.

Even those who have their suspicions can be reluctant to report a visit from an illegal gasfitter, for fear of any reprisals. The irony is that information about possible illicit activity by rogue gas engineers operating across Britain can be made anonymously to the Gas Safe Register or by calling the helpline free on 0800 408 5500.

In an interview in The Telegraph, the chief executive of Centrica, Sam Laidlaw, said that he could not rule out price hikes as a result of the problems we are witnessing at the moment, which will be worrying for all gas customers in the UK.

As a result of the widespread unrest, oil went up to $119.79 per barrel, the highest since the financial crisis. On top of that, gas went up 2.7% to 64.5p a therm, the highest since October 2009.

What’s even more worrying for gas customers is that bills were already hiked back in December. British Gas customers saw their bills go up on December 10 so that the average dual-fuel bill is now £1,239 a year instead of £1,157.

At the same time as he refused to rule out price hikes as a result of the Middle East problems, Laidlaw also announced record profits for both British Gas and Centrica. British Gas saw profits of £742 million last year, a 24% rise on the previous year, and Centrica revealed record profits of £2.8 billion.

British Gas was not the only power company to announce its profits. Scottish Power announced profits of £1 billion and RWE npower said it made profits of £233 million, a 6% rise on last year.

It is therefore entirely understandable that energy customers with npower are being urged to check whether or not they are entitled to a refund, with almost £2 million still unclaimed from overcharges in gas bills sent out to customers dating all the way back to 2007. The overcharges were made after the company changed the way in which it charged for gas units but failed to communicate this alteration to customers. The reminder to consumers has been issued by the Consumer Focus group, which announced alongside the gas company late last year that around £70 million of refunds would be offered to customers across the nation.

npower have been praised for paying back just over £50 million of this total sum since October 2010 but the Consumer Focus group clearly wants to remind homeowners that it’s up to them to check whether or not they’re entitled to a refund. All those entitled to a refund should have been issued with a refund letter from npower and should take this document to their local post office. A refund can then be issued from there. However, if you suspect you may be eligible for a refund and have not been sent a letter, npower have set up a helpline that will let you know for certain. The number to call is 0800 975 7938.

The planned rises will see electricity bills go up by 9%, and gas by 3%.

The rises will affect 4 million customers, as E.ON becomes the fifth of the big energy suppliers to raise its prices over the winter months.

Like the other energy companies, E.ON is blaming increasing industry costs on the need to raise its bills, most significantly the rise in wholesale prices which have gone up by a massive 35% in the last year.

The rises mean that dual-fuel customers will have to pay £58.40 a year extra on average, according to E.ON. That works out as an extra 16p a day. However, E.ON confirmed that its most vulnerable customers, including those on the Go Green, StayWarm and WarmAssist tariffs won’t be affected. Neither will Age UK customers see any rises until April.

E.ON is keen to highlight that this is the first rise it has implemented since August 2008 when it increased prices by 42% (£384). Since then, it has cut the bills by £110, or 8%. However, USwitch.com has suggested that this latest rise will mean that customers are still paying 37% more than they were in early 2008.

Graham Bartlett, who is the managing director of the Energy Solutions business at E.ON, highlighted the fact that the company did not increase bills during November and December like other companies. He also confirmed that they have “no option but to make this change.”

Specifically, Consumer Focus has called for an investigation into how tariffs are marketed and sold by energy suppliers. The concern for Consumer Focus is that the average energy consumer has trouble understanding all of the tariffs.

Back in March 2010, it carried out its own research into the matter, and the results suggested that a third of consumers don’t understand the information on their bills.

In total, there are 93 tariffs between the six biggest energy companies. With so many tariffs on offer it is easy to see how this could become confusing for customers.

The news follows on from the recent rises in gas and electricity bills, which have left many customers unhappy. Ofgem has now launched its own investigation into some of these rises.

The head of energy at Consumer Focus, Audrey Gallacher, said in the letter that tariffs are “often structured in ways that are overly complex and can seem designed to confuse the average consumer”. She also highlighted problems with “dubious discounts,” and revealed the shocking statistic that nearly 60% of consumers don’t know which tariff they are on or what they pay per unit.

However, the director of Energy UK, Christine McGourty, said that it is a good thing that consumers can choose from a large number of tariffs, and that customers can always call their energy companies to find out which is the best tariff for their situation.

After previously selling interests in locations as diverse as Egypt and Vietnam, BP are now thought to have sold their 60% stake in Pan American Energy (PAE), with Bridas Corporation the recipients of this majority interest in the oil and gas firm.

Although the figure raised by the sale of this latest asset is significant and the 20 billion US dollar mark certainly a significant one, it still leaves BP some way off their intended target of 30 billion US dollars. It is thought that the oil giant will need to raise this figure by the end of next year in order to, in the words of BP group chief executive Bob Dudley, “meet … significant financial commitments” by paying the compensation bill for the oil spill that ended up being the largest offshore oil spill ever seen anywhere in the world.

The spill was triggered by a rig explosion back in April which killed 11 workers and allowed over 170 million gallons of oil to flood into the Gulf of Mexico. Although the well leaking the oil was finally sealed a few months ago, BP’s global reputation received a massive blow. The oil giant will surely be hopeful that by taking full financial responsibility for the incident, it will be taking one small step along the long road to recovery.