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
| 19 Feb 26 |
UK: Sellafield awards contract to support plutonium repackaging Sellafield awards £45 million contract to LTi Metaltech to supply products, supporting safe plutonium storage and progress toward long-term disposal. |
| 19 Feb 26 |
UK: Angus Energy announces operations and finance update Angus Energy reports a substantial increase in Saltfleetby production following completion of coil tubing operations and average daily production of approx. 6.3 mmscfd, over the last week, representing a circa 30% increase on Q4 2025 average daily production. |
| 19 Feb 26 |
UK: Fenwick Solar Farm secures planning approval, powering a greener future for Doncaster and beyond BOOM Power has announced that Fenwick Solar Farm has been granted planning approval, marking a major milestone for renewable energy development in South Yorkshire. |
| 18 Feb 26 |
UK: First foundations for Ørsted’s Hornsea 3 Offshore Wind Farm arrive in the UK Ørsted has taken delivery of the first sets of monopiles for its Hornsea 3 Offshore Wind Farm. In total, six of the massive structures have now arrived into Teesside in the UK from manufacturer Haizea after travelling 960 nautical miles in two batches from Bilbao in Spain. The monopiles, the first of a total of 197, produced for Hornsea 3, the world’s single largest offshore wind farm, each weigh an average of 1,670 tonnes and 90m in length. |
| 17 Feb 26 |
UK: Arenko expands RWE collaboration through three new UK solar-plus-storage sites Arenko, the enterprise-grade technology partner for complex BESS and renewables portfolios, has expanded its commercial collaboration with RWE, rolling out its software to support optimisation of three additional co-located solar and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects, totalling 150MW, in the UK. |
United Kingdom - more news
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