Europe / Caspian / CIS
Country profile: United Kingdom
| Location: | Western Europe, islands including the northern one-sixth of the island of Ireland between the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, northwest of France |
| Climate: | temperate; moderated by prevailing southwest winds over the North Atlantic Current; more than one-half of the days are overcast |
| Terrain: | mostly rugged hills and low mountains; level to rolling plains in east and southeast |
| Size: | 244820 sq. km total (Land area: 241590 sq. km Water area: 3230 sq.km) |
| Population: | 60,943,912 (July 2008 est.) |
| Languages: | English, Welsh (about 26% of the population of Wales), Scottish form of Gaelic (about 60,000 in Scotland) |
| Government: | constitutional monarchy |
| Capital city: | London |
| Legal system: | based on common law tradition with early Roman and modern continental influences; has nonbinding judicial review of Acts of Parliament under the Human Rights Act of 1998; accepts compulsory ICJ jurisdiction, with reservations |
| Currency: | British pound (GBP) |
| Licensing: |
Country profile
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 renewables.
Energy production and consumption
| Oil | Gas | |
| Production: | 1 million bbl/day (2005 est.) | 84 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
| Consumption: | 1 million bbl/day (2005 est.) | 91 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
| Exports: | 1 million bbl/day (2005 est.) | 8 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
| Imports: | 1 million bbl/day (2005 est.) | 15 billion cu m (2005 est.) |
| Reserves: | 4 billion bbl (1 January 2006 est.) | 509 |
| Major fields: |
United Kingdom - recent news
| 24 Jan 25 |
UK: Technip Energies selected by Uniper to provide the FEED of Connah’s Quay new Combined Cycle Power Plant with Carbon Capture in the UK Technip Energies has been awarded a Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) contract for the proposed new build Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (‘CCGT’) power station with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), at Uniper’s Connah’s Quay site; the Connah’s Quay Low Carbon Power project. |
| 22 Jan 25 |
UK: Industry breakfast on carbon capture and storage at a critical moment for the sector The UK’s emerging carbon capture and storage (CCS) sector comes under focus at OEUK’s first breakfast briefing of 2025. Key themes under focus include the key opportunities and challenges of getting CCS projects to market. |
| 22 Jan 25 |
UK: Scottish Renewables launches new Clean Energy Cluster A new Clean Energy Cluster organisation, launched today (January 22) by Scottish Renewables at its Offshore Wind Conference in Glasgow, is set to supercharge the growth of Scotland's offshore wind supply chain. |
| 22 Jan 25 |
UK: Energy Skills Passport launches, helping workers transition across the energy mix The first stage of a new website to help workers move around the UK’s energy mix, including oil and gas and offshore wind, has been launched by Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) and RenewableUK, supported by the UK and Scottish Governments. |
| 21 Jan 25 |
UK: Serica Energy provides trading and operations update AIM-listed Serica Energy has issued a trading and operations update in respect of the year ending 31 December 2024. |
United Kingdom - more news
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