by Will Jones
North Sea natural gas saved Britain billions last year and savings will be even higher this year amid sky-high prices, analysis has found, increasing pressure on the Government to boost production during the Iran war. The Telegraph has the details.
Tapping into its own resources of offshore gas instead of paying for imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments saved the UK about £2.5 billion last year, according to analysis from investment bank Stifel.
The bank said savings on UK-produced gas would be “substantially higher” this year because prices have surged during the Middle East conflict.
Gas prices have soared by 56% since the start of the war as the threat of strikes has deterred tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of global exports usually pass.
Meanwhile, missile damage at Qatar’s Ras Laffan plant, which produces a fifth of the world’s LNG, is expected to take three to five years to repair.
Stifel’s analysis will pile further pressure on Ed Miliband, who has banned new exploration in British waters and has so far rejected calls to extract more fossil fuels from the North Sea because of his Net Zero push.
The Energy Secretary has claimed that awarding new licences for North Sea drilling would do little to lower prices.
However, Chris Wheaton, an analyst at Stifel, said it was astonishing that Ministers were not ramping up production of North Sea gas, asking: “Doesn’t the Government realise there’s a war on?”
“Unsurprisingly – and we are frankly astonished that this has to be stated – the UK’s own North Sea gas is cheaper than imported LNG, and we estimate this saved the UK £2.5 billion in 2025 alone,” he said. “With the increase in global LNG prices due to the Persian Gulf conflict, we expect that amount will be substantially higher in 2026.”
The North Sea is still the UK’s biggest gas source, accounting for around 45% of its supplies. The other 35% comes from piped gas from Norway, while 20% is LNG imports.
The Climate Change Commission has said Britain will still need oil and gas beyond 2050.
According to Stifel, this imported LNG has been, on average, 18p per therm more expensive than North Sea gas over the past few years, with this gap helping Britain save about £2.5 billion in 2025.
“To minimise the cost of energy for the UK, the UK needs to maximise its own gas production,” Wheaton added.
Worth reading in full.
Irrespective of whether it would save money or not, using our own reserves would help our balance-of-payments defecit.
And that saves money.
Sadly, wealth creation is a dirty phrase to the left wing ideologues currently running the U.K.
They just borrow money and then give it away via their cherished ‘Welfare State’and obsession with net zero.
The fascinating question yet to be answered is: when will mad Ed give way? Will he, even?
Ed Miliband hold firm! North sea oil and gas drilling won’t help anyone other than Nigel Farage – Grauniad
We have to go part time to save the planet
Britain’s sunny spring weather powered the grid to new solar energy records on two consecutive days this week. – Grauniad
With coal, oil and gas no records are sought or desired, just a mundane, regular and dependable energy supply. Every minute of every day.
Thus far, mad Ed is still vacillating.
I’m wondering how drilling for oil and gas will help Farage? Because Farage is advocating for more drilling? So the idea is to let the people suffer economically rather than do something Farage advocates?
Do we have FDS developing among the Left in the UK? Anything he advocates has to be resisted?
That’s how the left and DEMwits operate here. If President Trump is for it, they are reflexively against it, no matter how craven and twisted the opposite position actually is.
Do we have FDS developing among the Left in the UK?
We’ve had it for some time, enough to warrant this:
Ipswich Town’s chairman and chief executive has said he wants to “unreservedly apologise” for the handling of Nigel Farage’s visit to the Championship side’s stadium.
Mark Ashton said mistakes had been made that caused “harm and distress” to staff and parts of the fanbase and local community. Reform leader Farage was photographed and filmed during a visit to Portman Road on Monday, posing with personalised shirts and pretending to sign a contract.
The BBC understands he was invited to a meeting by a club representative. – BBC
Harm and distress? That’s for the indoctrinators to administer.
Britain’s largest teaching union has voted to combat ‘fascist’ Reform UK in classrooms and lobby to overturn a ban on extreme group Palestine Action. – DM
The left is going full rabid.
Britain’s sunny spring weather powered the grid to new solar energy records on two consecutive days this week. – Grauniad
And catastrophic failures on all consecutive nights
The UK needs to ramp up its Domestic Supply Chain.
At the least, the UK should replace its imports with domestic production.
Why depend on unreliable sources when what you need is right under your feet?
Saved billions to be squandered on renewables and tribute paid to the EU. Hooray.
Why do you list only two possible ways the hypothetical billions might be squandered? I am sure we can crowd-source at least 100, right here, if we try. Each more plausible than the last. Look, I’ll start: £££ for school kids with imaginary mental
illnesshealth issues.I didn’t set out any rules for this game. Are we allowed to include Scottish government spending? Does that make it too easy?
It can’t be said to often get the government out of the energy business, they suck at it. Everybody knows that.