Contribution to the UK Economy

UK Oil and Gas Production

The UKCS has produced around 34 billion barrels of oil and gas over nearly 40 years. In 2004, it produced 725 million barrels of oil and 95 billion m³ of gas. It met 98% of domestic gas demand, with the gap between supply and demand being met from storage and imports.

Figure 2: UK Oil and Gas Production 1970-2004

The UK continues to rank as a global oil and gas province. In 2003, the latest for which data is available, the UK was the fourth largest gas producer and the eleventh largest oil producer, though we may have been overtaken in the rankings as an oil producer during 2004.

Figure 3: Major Oil & Gas Producing Countries 2003

Oil and gas continue to be central to the UK’s energy economy, accounting for 84% of the total primary energy produced and 74% of the primary energy consumed in 2004. Gas is the UK’s preferred fuel (39% in 2004) followed by oil (35%) and coal (16%).

Figure 4: UK Production and Consumption of Primary Energy

The latest projection for energy supply and demand shows that total UK consumption was 246 Mtoe (million tonnes of oil equivalent) in 2004. UK demand exceeded indigenous energy production by around 9 Mtoe in 2004. This was caused by a decrease of 9% in indigenous energy production (coal, nuclear, oil and gas etc.,) compared against a slight rise in energy demand of around 0.5%. It was the first time since 1992 that the UK lost its self-sufficiency in energy.