Ageing North Sea Gas fields increase import dependency
Recommend on Google+
This article from the Times provides a timely reminder of the increasing importance of imported gas used in the gas-fired power stations that currently provide around a third of our electricity. Just a few years ago around 25% of gas was imported - now the figure is rising from countries such as Norway, Trinidad and Qatar.
“A spokesman for Centrica, owner of British Gas, said the UK’s ageing gas fields — many first tapped in the 1970s and 1980s — were no longer able to keep pace with domestic demand. “On the current trajectory we will have to import three quarters of our gas by 2015,” he said. Britain was still a net exporter of gas as recently as 2003 and was forced to import about 5 per cent of supplies in 2004 for the first time.”
The economy will become ever-more reliant on imports of liquified natural gas and sensitive to the impact of price volatility in the international gas markets. A gas cartel still looks a long way off, partly because most gas is traded on very long supply contracts and also because of the cost efficiency of transporting it and storing it around the world.
Britain was still a net exporter of gas in 2003, and was forced to import gas for the first time in 2004.
blog comments powered by Disqus
Unit 4 Macro: Focus on India - Comparative Advantage [27 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Trade and Growth [27 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Inflation [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on China - Per Capita Incomes [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Focus on India - World’s Cheapest Computer [26 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Focus on India - Supply Side Issues [25 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Focus on India - Economic Growth [24 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Exporting to the Booming Chinese Economy [23 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Russia Joins the WTO [22 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Frontier Markets - the New BRICS? [15 Jan 2012]
Beyond the Bike - The Importance of Remittances [15 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Competitive Advantage in Trade (Some Videos) [12 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: UK Trade Patterns [11 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Factors Driving Business Investment [10 Jan 2012]
Hopes and Fears 2012 [10 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Natural Disasters and their Economic Impact [7 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Low Cost Airlines Beat the Recession [1 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Biomass Subsidies and Timber Prices [30 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Housing Market in 2011 [26 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Brazil Overtakes UK in Economic Size [26 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Sub Normal Profits - BP Leaves the Solar Industry [21 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopoly and Duopoly in Bus Markets [20 Dec 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: India - the Road Ahead [7 Dec 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Inside a Biscuit Factory [1 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Brand Loyalty in Mobile Phones [27 Nov 2011]
Beyond the Bike - What is the value of life in Africa? [19 Nov 2011]
Beyond the Bike - The Value of Money [19 Nov 2011]
Pasty Prices - Something to Chew Over [19 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Should the EU introduce a Tobin Tax? [14 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Unilever hit by rising costs [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Time of Use Pricing for Energy [2 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Economies of Scale and the Kinect [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Google Maps to Charge for Usage [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Price Discrimination in the E-Book Market [31 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Should TNCs make full disclosure on factory wages? [30 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Is the Sun Dipping on Solar Subsidies? [27 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: University fees and elasticity of demand [24 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Economists attack food price speculation [24 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Importance of Investment [19 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tesco Behaving Badly - Price Anchoring [17 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Positive and Negative Multiplier Effects [14 Oct 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Can Exports Drive a Recovery? [13 Oct 2011]
Skidelsky in Madrid [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: UK suffers a weak recovery [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Producing Coffee - Kenya in Pictures [4 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Homework Assignment on Consumer Spending [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Homework Assignment on Market Prices [2 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: When China Met Africa [1 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: The Supply and Demand Rap! [28 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Equilibrium Market Prices [27 Sep 2011]
Putting the “discrimination” into price discrimination! [26 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Market Supply [26 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Market Demand [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Bangladesh and Comparative Advantage in Textiles [19 Sep 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Fixed and Variable Costs [18 Sep 2011]
Study Note - Introduction to GDP [15 Sep 2011]
Study Note - The Circular Flow of Income [15 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Growth and Inequality [14 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Value Added in Production and GDP [11 Sep 2011]
NHS spending good, private provision bad? [5 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Baltic Dry Index and Global Weakening [19 Aug 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: The Price of Football [2 Aug 2011]
A surprising example of trade between the USA, China, and Korea. [19 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Cotton Prices and the Retail Price of Clothing [13 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of Volatile Corn Prices [12 Jul 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Reducing Unemployment after a Recession [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: FirstBuy, Affordability and Effective Demand in Property [10 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: High price of petrol drains demand [9 Jul 2011]
UK firms wake up to Brazilian opportunities [21 Jun 2011]
Evan Davis ‘Made in Britain’ - and a new trade data tool to play with [21 Jun 2011]
Six Global Trends Shaping Business Strategy [15 Jun 2011]
A2 Macro: Consumer Spending [30 May 2011]
Lady Gaga and Baby Food! [29 May 2011]
Invisible Exports - Originating Journalist is remembered [27 May 2011]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Supply-Side Policies [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Demand Pull Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Cost Push Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Economic Recovery [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Recession [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Spare Capacity [23 May 2011]
AQA A2 Economics - European Context [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: The Output Gap [23 May 2011]
Revision notes on unemployment [22 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Monopsony Power in Markets [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: The Importance of Profit [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: High and Low Marginal Cost Products [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Examples of Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Perfect Competition [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Competition and Efficiency [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation and Economic Policies [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation Efficiency and Welfare [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Moving Away from Profit Max [18 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Diseconomies of Scale [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Minimum Efficient Scale [18 May 2011]
AS economics: Using the cost-benefit principle [18 May 2011]
ECONOMICS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER
Join over 6,000 other Economics Teachers in the UK and around the world who receive the tutor2u regular Economics Resource Email Newsletter. Get special offers, first news of latest resources, teaching ideas, conferences and workshops + loads of great ideas for teaching economics from our blog authors.
