Igloo Energy is close to being added to the list of supplier casualties as the fallout from surging gas prices continues to shrink the number of players operating in UK’s domestic energy market.

Sky News understands that Igloo is in talks with Alvarez & Marsal, a professional services firm which has already been lined up to advise Green, another small energy supplier, on a potential insolvency process.

Igloo, which was founded in 2016, was among a handful of suppliers ordered by the industry regulator, Ofgem, this week to pay cash into a government renewable energy scheme or risk losing their licences.

The others were Colorado Energy, Neon Reef Limited, Whoop Energy Limited and Symbio Energy.

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Igloo has now stopped taking on new customers, and has added a notice to its website saying “the state of the wholesale energy market is the worst we have ever seen it”.

If Igloo does succumb to the pressures engulfing the market, it will be at least the sixth to collapse this month, following the likes of Utility Point and PfP Energy.

On Wednesday, Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, is to appear before MPs to give evidence on the crisis in the gas market, which has been exacerbated by smaller suppliers not hedging their positions, thereby leaving them exposed to sudden spikes in wholesale prices.

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Mr Kwarteng has ruled out bailing out any of the smaller suppliers, and is instead leaning towards a plan to subsidise larger players which take on customers from failed companies.

There are now roughly 40 suppliers in the UK market, sharply down from a peak of 70 in 2018.

Igloo Energy did not respond to a series of emailed requests for comment.

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