Quote:
Originally Posted by grantp
We do anyway, as well as the coal replacement wood pellets for DRAX.
As fas as I can tell there are now only 6 oil significant oil refineries in the UK so more and more refined fuel will be imported as well.
And of course with the closure of the Rough storage platform almost all gas supply is more or less real time on line.
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We don't import all of our oil and gas. You can export oil that's better for plastic making and import oil that's more suitable for other processes if you want. It's obviously not as simple as "we don't import our oil and gas", but in general we don't rely on that - gas from the North Sea ends up in most homes.
Platforms now still get phone calls from the Home Office asking them to increase or decrease production depending on how the gas grid is doing. When the Forties were down to extended maintenance and it ran over for a couple of weeks, there were some very panicked phone calls to Apache asking when they'd be operating again as the gas was required.
The Rough facility is not being shutdown - they're just one of the two platforms used because it's too old to maintain it economically. The Cygnus Alpha went live late last year and provides at least 5% of the UKs gas production, more than filling the void. And a new gas plant was just built in Shetland to service the West of Shetland - that currently provides almost 10% of the UKs gas production through the mainland pipeline at St Fergus.
Long story short, we don't import all of our oil and gas, and at $50 a barrel it's still economical to lift it. If that rises closer to $60 then you'll see a lot more development west of Shetland in the deep waters.
If the oil price drops below $35 for an extended period of time, you won't be able to operate in the UK. People think that that'll make their fuel cheaper, but it won't. Most of your fuel is currently tax anyway, but importing the fuel will have the cost rise anyway. So a low barrel price doesn't necessarily mean cheaper fuel costs, and too low a price means they'll rise.
We're getting a bit OT here, but gist: Fuel prices aren't going to drop. If hydrocarbon production is no longer viable in UK waters, you'll see a massive push towards renewables. And then we can all drive Leafs and Model 3s and enjoy the EV
