The United Kingdom (UK) is an important political and economic power in Europe and the world. With its significant North Sea reserves, the United Kingdom is a major European oil and natural gas producer. The UK is the largest oil producer in the EU, but production has declined since peaking in 1999. The UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), located in the North Sea off the eastern coast of the UK, contains the bulk of the countrys oil reserves. Most of the UK crude oil grades are light and sweet (30° to 40° API), which generally makes them attractive to foreign buyers. BP is the largest oil producer in the UK, with 26 fields producing a total of 471,600 bbl/d in 2004, according to OGJ. There is an extensive network of pipelines in the UK to carry oil extracted from North Sea platforms to coastal terminals in Scotland and northern England. The UK has a single international crude oil pipeline, the 220-mile, 34-inch Norpipe operated by ConocoPhillips. The UK had 1.9 million bbl/d of refining capacity in 2006, according to OGJ. ExxonMobil operates the single-largest refinery in the country, the 326,000-bbl/d Fawley facility in southern England. The UK is one of the largest natural gas producers in the world. The UK produced 3.6 Tcf of natural gas in 2003, about the same as the previous year, but a decrease from the peak of 3.8 Tcf in 2000. Private companies control the UK natural gas sector, including production, distribution, and transmission. There are four main pipeline systems in the UK that carry natural gas from offshore platforms to coastal landing terminals. Currently, the UK has a single LNG import terminal, the NGTs Grain LNG on the Isle of Grain. Most UK coal consumption is for power generation. Natural gas-fired power stations are replacing coal as the principle source of the UK power supply. Conventional thermal plants provide the bulk of the electricity supply in the UK. BE operates eight nuclear power stations in the UK. The UK government has introduced regulations that require electricity distributors to source a portion of their electricity supply from renewables (including hydroelectricity), currently 3 percent but set to rise to 10 percent by 2010. The UK is an Annex I country under the Kyoto Protocol.
The United Kingdom (UK) is an important political and economic power in Europe and the world. It has the second-largest economy in the European Union (EU) with a nominal 2005 gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.2 trillion. The UK economy grew by 1.8 percent in 2005, with growth of 2.2 percent forecasted for 2006. While the UK has been a member of the EU since 1973, it does not participate in the European single currency, the Euro. The UK is the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the EU. However, after years of being a net exporter of both fuels, the UK became a net importer of natural gas in 2004. Government estimates also predict that the country will become a net importer of oil by the end of the decade. Production from UK oil and natural gas fields peaked in the late 1990s and has declined steadily over the past several years, as the discovery of new reserves has not kept pace with the maturation of existing fields. In response, the government has begun a three-pronged approach to address the predicted domestic shortfalls: 1) increasing domestic production through efficiency gains and the exploitation of marginal fields; 2) establishing necessary import infrastructure, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminals and transnational pipelines; and 3) investing in energy conservation and renewable.
According to Oil and Gas Journal (OGJ), the UK had 4.0 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves in 2006, the most of any EU member country. The UK consumed 1.8 million barrels per day (bbl/d) of oil in 2005, mostly flat from the previous year. The importance of oil to the UK economy has declined slightly over the past two decades, with oils contribution to total energy consumption falling from in 37 percent in 1983 to 35 percent in 2003. The UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), located in the North Sea off the eastern coast of the UK, contains the bulk of the countrys oil reserves. There are also sizable reserves in the North Sea north of the Shetland Islands, with smaller amounts in the North Atlantic. Besides these offshore assets, the UK also has the Wytch Farm field, the largest onshore oil field in Europe.