The UK is the largest producer of petroleum and natural gas in the EU and according to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, the United Kingdom had proved oil reserves of 3.592 billion barrels at the end of 2007 or 0.29 % of the world's reserves, more than any other EU member country. According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, the United Kingdom had 2007 proved natural gas reserves of 0.41 trillion cubic metres, 0.23% of the world total. The importance of oil to the UK economy has steadily declined over the past two decades, with oil's contribution to total energy consumption falling from in 41 percent in 1980 to 36 percent in 2002.
The UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), located in the North Sea off the eastern coast of the UK, contains the bulk of the country's oil reserves. Most of the UK crude oil grades are light and sweet (30° to 40° API), which generally makes them attractive to foreign buyers. The UK has been a net exporter of crude oil since 1981.The main importers of UK oil in 2003 were the United States (31 percent), the Netherlands (26 percent), France (16 percent), and Germany (14 percent). According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, the United Kingdom produced an average of 1636.1 thousand barrels of crude oil per day in 2007, 1.96% of the world total and a change of 0.2 % compared to 2006. According to the same survey, the United Kingdom had 2007 natural gas production of 72.39 billion cubic metres in 2007, 2.45% of the world total.
According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, the United Kingdom consumed an average of 1695.69 thousand barrels of oil a day in 2007, and 91.43 billion cubic metres of natural gas, 3.11% of the world total.
BP is the largest oil producer in the UK. Other large oil producers in the UK include Shell, ChevronTexaco, and Total.
Petroleum has been produced in small quantities on the UK mainland for centuries. The first commercial discovery was made in 1918 in Nottinghamshire. In 1973 Wytch Farm in Dorset was the first major onshore oil field discovery and is now the largest onshore oil field in Western Europe. In 1965 came the first significant discovery of offshore gas in the West Sole Field in the Southern Basin of the North Sea. In 1967 the first oil was found in the Arbroath Field. Today there are a record number of around 240 offshore fields in production, many of which have been developed using advanced engineering techniques unknown twenty years ago.
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.
According to the 2008 BP Statistical Energy Survey, the United Kingdom had a 2007 refinery capacity of 1835.51 thousand barrels a day, 2.08% of the world total.
