Introduction

Today small energy firms among those struggling to stay afloat as world gas prices spiral. Ed Butler hears from Peter McGirr, who runs Green energy, a UK gas and electricity firm supplying about a quarter of a million households. Higher energy prices could lead to all types of additional business challenges. Sven Holester is the Norwegian President and CEO of Yara, Europe's second largest producer of commercial fertiliser. He says the spike in energy prices has already affected his firm's production. The cost of higher gas is affecting food prices, fertiliser, even abattoirs. But is it all Russia's fault? We ask Dieter Helm, professor of economic policy at the University of Oxford.

Producer: Benjie Guy

(Picture: The Slavyanskaya compressor station, the starting point of the Nord Stream 2 offshore natural gas pipeline.)