UK Gas Production Falls in 2018
UK gas production fell 3.4 % last year compared with 2017, to just below 450 TWh, according to government statistics published February 28.
The result shows that 2018 was the first year since 2013 that gross gas production decreased on a year on year basis. That said, the long term trend has been descending since a peak in 2000.
Exports dropped significantly last year to their lowest level since 1998. Only a small proportion of gas was imported or exported 20 years ago, with the start-up of the UK-Belgium Interconnector late that year. Last year was only the second time since 2000 that the UK exported less than 100 TWh of gas. Imports remained very similar to the levels seen in 2017 with a difference of only 0.1%.
Gas output rose by 0.8% and available gas by 3.2%. The difference in these two figures is largely due to a build in gas stock through the course of the year compared with a significant decrease in stock over the last two years, as reserves at the facility at Rough were drawn down.
Imports from Norway dropped by 8.0% as a result of the closure of the Forties pipeline system, following a 13% year-on-year increase in 2017. Norway remains the most significant source of gas for the UK; it supplied more than two-thirds of import volumes over the year. Partly compensating for the decrease, imports from the two UK gas interconnectors – with Belgium and the Netherlands – rose in the early part of the year in response to cold weather.
LNG imports more than trebled in the final quarter of the year, comprising nearly a third of total imports, compared with 18% for the year. December was the first month since March 2009 that Qatar was not the main source of LNG; however it remained the largest source for the quarter.
The UK LNG market has grown in diversity, with no country supplying more than a third of total LNG imports and five sources supplying more than 5%. November 2018 saw the first LNG cargo from Equatorial Guinea, which began to be utilised in December. Anglo-Dutch major Shell is the offtaker.