Future of the UK oil and gas industry

• The oil and gas industry is well-established in the UK, historically focusing on exploiting conventional oil and gas fields, both onshore and offshore. The UK was formally a net exporter of oil and gas, but is now a net importer.
• Oil and gas provided 72% of the UK’s total primary energy (sum of production and imports subtracting exports) in 2017.
• In 2017, net imports made up 24% of the oil the UK used, with the remainder from domestic production.
• Net imports of natural gas were around 45% of UK supply in the same year.
• The majority of oil, almost 80% of final consumption, is refined for use in transport.
• Just over one third of the UKs total gas is used for domestic heating, and just under one third for electricity generation. Other major users are industry and business.
• The UK is also a net importer of petroleum products (in total) such as petrol, diesel and heating oils. [1]
• The Government published their Industrial Strategy in November 2017. The strategy includes sector deals for a number of different industries. The Government and oil and gas industry are currently working on a sector deal for oil and gas.

[1]     BEIS, Digest of UK Energy Statistics 2018, July 2017, Table 1.1