- Millions of British families will heat their homes with gas from the deserts of Qatar this winter, after the arrival this month of the UK's largest ever cargo of liquefied natural gas.

- The tanker, which is set to arrive at a new gas terminal on the Isle of Grain, Kent, will deliver up to 50 million therms of gas, enough to supply about 4.5 million homes for a week.

- With the rapid depletion of the North Sea, Qatar, which has the world's third biggest gas reserves, is set to be a leading source of supply for the UK in the years ahead.

- This year the UK will need to import 40 per cent of its gas demand, rising to 75 per cent by 2015.

- LNG is expected to grow to 28 per cent of UK total supply by 2017, according to National Grid.

- LNG is natural gas that has been supercooled in its source country to minus 160C, creating a liquid whose volume is one 600th of its gaseous form. It is then transported to its destination by tanker and regasified.

- Sam Laidlaw, the chief executive of Centrica, who visited Qatar at the weekend with Gordon Brown and a UK trade delegation, said: “Qatar will play an increasingly important role in maintaining supplies for British Gas customers as North Sea production declines. “Our relationship with Qatar is of particular importance and we look forward to building much closer ties over the coming years.”

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