PREFACE/ISSUE
The Brexit has caused issues for UK energy security. EU´s access to the cheap Russian energy is a serious security concern for UK competitiveness.
The UK has higher priced sources of energy.
I. From the 2013 Nord Stream proposal toward UK´s energy insecurity
Russia has discussed plans to expand its existing Nord Stream pipeline, which currently lands in Germany, to Britain, Europe's largest gas consumer. Russia currently does not supply Britain directly.
8 April 2013 - Gazprom, Gasunie to explore Nord Stream expansion to Britain
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Russia's Gazprom GAZP.MM and Dutch Gasunie GSUNI.UL signed a letter of intent on Monday to explore the potential expansion of the Nord Stream pipeline to Britain, one of several deals signed during President Vladimir Putin's visit to the Netherlands.If the project comes through, the extended arm of Nord Stream would give Gazprom greater access to Britain, which has an annual demand of 100 billion cubic metres (bcm).
22 May 2018 - Boris Johnson joins US in criticising Russia to Germany gas pipeline / Foreign secretary says Nord Stream 2 could leave Europe reliant on ‘malign’ Russia
The UK foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has joined the US in condemning “divisive” German plans...Commentators in Russian newspapers such as Pravda this week confidently claimed that UK energy needs would become the anvil on which British opposition to Russia collapses. Reliant on the evaporating reserves of the Norwegians and Dutch for liquid gas, the UK will be forced to turn to Russian gas, and “beg Russia for forgiveness”, Pravda claimed.In a letter released to pro-Polish British MPs, Johnson says it is right to highlight the “divisiveness of this pipeline across Europe”, adding that “Euro-Atlantic unity remains our strongest tool in standing up to malign Russian activity”.Daniel Kawczynski, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Poland, said: “The letter is not as forthright as it could be, and in some way obfuscates, but importantly it accepts there are implications to the pipeline that extend well beyond what is in Germany’s economic self-interest.”
19 Oct 2018 - UK Energy imports and exports
After spending most of the previous 25 years as a net exporter of energy the UK became a net importer in 2004.
The gap between imports and exports has increased since 2004. In 2017 UK imports of energy were almost twice as large as its exports. Net imports made up 36% of UK energy needs.
24 September 2020 - UK can be 'Saudi Arabia of wind power' - PM Boris Johnson
II. Boris Johnson's energy security strategy at end of 2020
Boris Johnson's energy security strategy aims to reduce the UK's dependence on imported fossil fuels and transition to cleaner, more sustainable energy sources.
The UK Energy White Paper, published in December 2020, sets out the government's long-term energy strategy, including plans for net-zero emissions by 2050. The Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution, announced in November 2020, outlines further policy initiatives for energy security and sustainability.
The key elements of Boris Johnson's energy security strategy include:
- Increasing domestic production of oil and gas: The UK government plans to increase domestic oil and gas production, particularly in the North Sea, to reduce the country's reliance on imported fossil fuels.
- Investing in renewable energy: The government aims to increase investment in renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydro power, and to accelerate the deployment of new technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
- Supporting nuclear energy: The government plans to invest in new nuclear power plants to help meet the country's energy needs while reducing carbon emissions.
- Promoting energy efficiency: The government aims to improve energy efficiency in buildings, transport, and industry to reduce energy consumption and lower carbon emissions.
- Developing new technologies: The government plans to invest in research and development of new energy technologies, such as hydrogen fuel cells and electric vehicles.
III. Brexit and UK energy security
1 January 2021 - the UK left the EU's internal energy market.
Energy trading through electricity interconnectors between the EU and Great Britain is no longer managed through existing single market tools, such as EU market coupling, as these are reserved for EU countries. Only Northern Ireland will maintain part of the single electricity market with Ireland, as provided by the Withdrawal Agreement.
Before Brexit, the UK participated in the EU's energy market coupling initiative, which facilitated the trading of electricity with other member states. However, after Brexit, the UK ceased to be a part of this initiative, and the energy market coupling with the EU was discontinued.
This has led to a number of consequences for the UK's energy market, including:
- Increased energy prices: The end of energy market coupling has resulted in higher energy prices for consumers in the UK. This is because the UK is no longer able to benefit from the cheaper electricity prices available in other EU countries.
- Reduced energy security: The end of energy market coupling has also reduced the UK's energy security, as the country is now more reliant on its own energy resources and less able to import electricity from other countries.
- Increased regulatory costs: The UK has had to establish its own regulatory framework for the energy market, which has resulted in additional costs for energy companies.
- Investment uncertainty: The end of energy market coupling has also created uncertainty for investors in the UK's energy sector, as they are no longer able to rely on the stable and integrated EU energy market.
Overall, the end of energy market coupling has had significant implications for the UK's energy market
22 Sept 2021 - The UK does not support Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project to Germany
...and does not need its own long-term storage facility, UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Kwasi Kwarteng told a parliamentary committee Sept. 22.
Having initially said otherwise, Kwarteng clarified his position saying the UK was not supportive of Nord Stream 2, which awaits regulatory clearance, while playing down its significance in the UK context.
"We are not exposed to Russian supply as many of our EU counterparts are" he said.
23 Sept 2021 - Europe's Governments Set to Spend Billions as Energy Crisis Deepens
Some European politicians are accusing the Kremlin of deliberately worsening Europe's energy crisis as a tactic to pressure the European Union into speeding up certification of the just completed Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which bypasses Ukraine and runs from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
The International Energy Agency has called on Russia to boost gas exports. "The IEA believes that Russia could do more to increase gas availability to Europe and ensure storage is filled to adequate levels in preparation for the coming winter heating season," it said in a statement.
Seven British natural gas suppliers have gone bust in the past six weeks, a consequence of wholesale gas prices surging by more than 70% in August alone. There are fears another three suppliers may declare bankruptcy. Suppliers are unable to pass on to customers the full increases because of government-imposed price caps on what consumers can be charged.
8 Oct 2021 - Boris is right about Putin’s gas-powered games — but is the EU listening?
Now completed, Nord Stream 2 awaits approval, first by German and then by EU regulators. The British intervention is bound to irritate both Berlin and Brussels, but as Downing Street warns, the security implications are “serious” for this country, too.
Last week, a much-noted article in The Times by Peter Tiede, lead columnist for the tabloid Bild, suggested that Germans were revelling in “schadenfreude” at Britain’s fuel shortage and couldn’t care less because “nothing happening on your shores makes much of a difference to our lives”.
Given this background, the British attack on Nord Stream 2 may fall on deaf ears.
17 Oct 2021 - Russia ‘will come to rescue’ of UK if needed during gas crisis, ambassador says
Russia will do what it can to assist the UK and could potentially even “come to the rescue” amid problems linked to rising energy costs, the country’s ambassador has suggested.
Andrei Kelin also denied that Russia is withholding gas supplies, appearing to suggest commitments to increase supply will take time to take effect.
2022
16 Feb 2022 - Energy crunch: How the UK could play crucial role if Russia turned off gas taps to Europe
Sky's Ed Conway examines how Europe could cope in the event Russia decided to leave some of its biggest customers out in the cold and finds post-Brexit Britain could provide the solution...
That bring us to perhaps the most unexpected answer. That hole could be filled by Britain. The UK could send North Sea gas directly to Europe, through its pipelines, and then replenish its own gas network with LNG imported from the US, Qatar or other suppliers. There are a couple of important reasons why the UK would end up as a supplier (or rather the pipeline) of last resort.
24 Feb 2022 - How much gas does the UK get from Russia? What Ukraine sanctions and halting Nord Stream 2 mean for gas prices
Russia is Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas, providing around 35 per cent of the gas used across the continent.
The UK’s reliance on Russian gas is far less significant, at just 3 per cent.
About half of the UK’s gas comes from the North Sea, and a third is sourced from Norway.
The rest is made up of imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) transported to the UK by sea from countries such as Qatar and the US. The Russian gas that the UK receives also comes in LNG form.
These LNG supplies are very sensitive to global market prices and are sold to those offering the highest price.
The UK is not protected from rising prices purely because it relies less on Russian gas.
7 March 2022 - Boris Johnson says we can’t close down use of Russian oil and gas overnightHe told reporters that he would set out an energy supply strategy in the coming days.
‘There are going to be impacts but I think it is the right thing to do. It is completely the right thing to do to move away from Russian hydrocarbons but we have to do it step by by step.
‘We have got to make sure we have substitute supply. One of the things we are looking at is the possibility of using more of our own hydrocarbons. ‘That doesn’t mean we are in any way abandoning our commitment to reducing CO2 but we have got to reflect the reality that there is a crunch on at the moment. We need to increase our self-reliance.
March 2022 - Boris Johnson to unveil new ‘energy supply strategy’ that hints at fossil fuel uptake
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that he will launch a new "energy supply strategy" in the coming days that hints at using more UK-derived fossil fuels in the short term to reduce reliance on Russian gas.
9 March 2022 - Statement on the phasing out of Russian oil imports
Statement by Kwasi Kwarteng, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, on the phasing out of Russian oil imports.
Measure detail
But we want to go further, Madam Deputy Speaker.
Yesterday I set out that the UK is phasing out imports of Russian oil during the course of the year.
This transition will give the market, it will give businesses and supply chains more than enough time to substitute Russian imports.
16 March 2022 - Prime Minister @BorisJohnson on why it’s vital that we invest in renewable energy and end the West’s reliance on Putin’s oil and gas.
See video news here
21 March 2022 - Today the Prime Minister met nuclear industry leaders today to..
... discuss how to improve domestic energy security and accelerate nuclear projects in the UK.
28 March 2022 - The UK sanction list
30 May 2022 - Energy crisis: UK to become MAJOR exporter to EU with huge wind and solar boom.
BRITAIN could soon find a way out of the energy crisis, as a new report suggests that the UK could receive a massive supply of green electricity.
IV. The British update of its energy security strategy
7 April 2022 - UK updates its energy security strategy
It is crucial we work with international partners to maintain stable energy markets and prices. This will help protect UK consumers and reduce the use of fossil fuels globally. Similar to our domestic strategy, we have a dual approach to reduce global reliance on Russian fossil fuels whilst pivoting towards clean, affordable energy. To reduce global reliance on Russian fossil fuels, the UK is:
- committing to phase out the use of Russian oil and coal by the end of 2022, and end imports of Russian liquefied natural gas as soon as possible thereafter. The US has made similar commitments
- building international support to reduce Russian energy revenues. Internationally coordinated action, for example, through the G7 and International Energy Agency is key to support stable markets and to help secure the critical minerals we all need to successfully move to clean energy
- providing a key EU entry point for non-Russian supplies of gas. We are examining our infrastructure to ensure gas flows efficiently between the UK, Europe and the global market through our interconnectors and LNG terminals and promote gas infrastructure to be hydrogen-ready
Oil and gas
- Low carbon UK gas, and zero Russian imports.
26 April 2022 - Liz Truss is ready to try and beat global aggressors at their own game
[M: This is highly interesting news, in light of future NS destruction, the hit on NS and consolidation of EU foreign policy, etc, it all looks like part of strategy]
"The Foreign Secretary believes there needs to be a much greater economic underpinning to foreign policyWhen Liz Truss addresses diplomats this evening with the annual Mansion House speech, it will be the first time since her appointment as Foreign Secretary that she has set out her plan to reconfigure the UK’s foreign policy.Since Truss’s promotion to the great office of state in the autumn reshuffle, she has seen a wider geopolitical shift than many foreign secretaries have encountered in the bulk of their tenure.Berlin has cancelled the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and increased its defence spending – rewriting 30 years of German foreign policy which has been underpinned by a belief in change through trade.[M: It was not cancelled at this point, just legal issues but the project continued]
On the UK side, much of what has happened confirmed the Government assessment on the threats the West faces. The 2021 integrated review (into foreign, security and defence policy) correctly identified Russia as the greatest threat – while naming China as “a systemic challenge”.Yet with events moving as quickly as they are, the view in the Foreign Office is that the UK must now go further still. Key to this is to fix what has long been a weak flank of UK foreign policy: moving to strengthen economic ties – both with long-standing allies and those countries the UK wishes to bring into its orbit.While the West has rallied in the wake of war in Ukraine, the fact that Russia invaded in the first place was a failure of deterrence. The view of the Foreign Secretary is that in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes, a new approach is required – one in which there needs to be a much greater economic underpinning to foreign policy.[M: Is the destruction of EU-Russia economic ties an objective?]
Part of the reason Russian strength got to the point it did was that the world let its guard down – both in terms of defence spending and economic ties. In that period, other governments viewed as aggressors have expanded their reach – just look at how the Chinese government has expanded its influence in the Indo-Pacific through economic ties.Now the UK wants to beat these aggressors at their own game. It’s not just about boosting defence spending – something Truss has previously suggested would be necessary – though the Chancellor Rishi Sunak may want to look away when she gets up to speak on Wednesday.Instead, it’s engaging with other countries. “Liz wants the free world to use economics as a hard-edged tool of security and foreign policy because we’ve neglected it since the Cold War and aggressors have been bolder,” says an ally of the Foreign Secretary. “She wants to use economics to constrain rivals and also build closer trade and investment links with a wider group of countries.”Another supporter of Truss puts it this way: “We need an economic Nato.”This shift can also be summarised as a “carrot and stick” approach. The stick can be seen in the power of the sanctions levied against Russia by the G7 and its allies. The economic damage they are inflicting is leading to pain for Putin and his people. They could go further still – with a ban on imports of oil and gas; hydrocarbons make up a third of the Russian economy.
As for the carrot, during the Cold War the US did two things – establish Nato and then a general agreement on tariffs and trade. This time around a wider reach would be required – taking into account those countries in the Indo-Pacific who see what’s happening in Ukraine and worry for their own security."
12 May 2022 - Where will Britain’s future energy supply come from?
Russian imports supplied only 2.2% of energy used in the UK in 2021..To account for future changes to gas and oil supply and secure more domestic resources, the Government plans to further utilise North Sea reserves alongside commissioning a scientific review of shale gas extraction.
The Institute for Government (IfG) said the security of the UK’s physical supply will “likely hold up” following possible Russian gas export disruptions to the EU, even without measures from the strategy, due to diversity of supply.
5 June 2022 - Norway calls off gas strikes that risked UK supply
The UK imports about 50% of its gas and Norway is its biggest supplier making up 77% of imports, ONS data shows.
The Department for Business said: "We have one of the most reliable and diverse energy systems in the world, with access to our own North Sea gas reserves, and the second largest LNG port infrastructure in Europe."
17 June 2022 - Explainer: Why Russia drives European and British gas prices21 July 2022 - First UK-Germany power link gets financial green light
A financial agreement was reached on Thursday to build the first power cable linking Britain and Germany, with construction set to begin later this year as the two countries work to reduce dependency on Russian gas and increase the use of green energy.
28 July 2022 - UK energy in brief 2022
24 July 2022 - UK's Liz Truss Asserts Putin 'holding Rest Of The World To Ransom Over Gas Prices'
29 July 2022 - Families must look at how to cut energy use this winter, says Ben Wallace
7 August 2022 - UK on brink of energy disaster as Norway could cut power to Britain over ‘lack of rain’
7 August 2022 - ‘Norway first!’ Panic as UK's BIGGEST importer of gas poised to cut supplies off
NORWAY, a major energy supplier for Britain, is facing growing pressure to cut off gas and electricity exports to the rest of the world.Norway is responsible for over 60 percent of the total gas demand, being the single biggest supplier of gas to the UK.Given that most interconnectors are in the south of Norway, both ends of the country face extreme disparities when it comes to energy prices. While electricity in northern households can cost €2 per megawatt (£1.69), families in the southwest of the country can pay a staggering €550 per megawatt (£464).
This has led to Olso’s government facing pressure from campaigners, calling on Norway to cut itself off from Europe.
The cost of gas and electricity in the UK is at an eye-watering level, despite the fact that Britain imports very little energy from Russia. This is because both the UK and its major gas supplier Norway, are part of the open market, meaning that prices in the rest of Europe affect the UK. Britain is connected to Norway via a 450-mile interconnector that joins Blyth, Northumberland to Kvilldal power station through cables that run through the North Sea.
8 August 2022 - Norway threatens to ration electricity in fresh blow for UK and European energy supplies
30 August 2022 - Jacob Rees-Mogg meets energy giants in bid to boost North Sea oil and gas supplies
City A.M. understands the Brexit Opportunities Minister and Liz Truss-backer held talks with energy giants including Shell over recent days, ahead of a desperate winter which will see energy bills spike to new records – driven by fears of supply shortages.
He is also looking to seal deals with companies operating in the waters of friendly allies such as Norway.There is confusion over whether Rees-Mogg met oil and gas companies in his role as a Minister or as a supporter of Truss – with multiple Government departments refusing to comment.
Truss’ senior team has claimed the meetings were set up by civil servants, and was not linked to her campaign.
7 Sept 2022 - UK’s New Energy Chief Rees-Mogg Wants to Drill ‘Every Last Drop’
“We need to be thinking about extracting every last cubic inch of gas from the North Sea because we want security of supply,” Rees-Mogg said in a radio interview earlier this year. “We’re not trying to become net zero tomorrow and we are going to need fossil fuels in the interim and we should use ours that we have got available.”8 Sept 2022 - Energy Supply Taskforce to hold talks with renewables sector over fixed-price contractsA new Energy Supply Taskforce, led by Madelaine McTernan who headed up the UK’s successful Vaccine Taskforce, has begun negotiations with domestic and international suppliers to agree long-term contracts that reduce the price they charge for energy and increase the security of its supply.
The Taskforce and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will negotiate with renewable producers to reduce the prices they charge as well.
V. The switch from importer to exporter on high energy prices
30 May 2022 - Energy crisis: UK to become MAJOR exporter to EU with huge wind and solar boom
BRITAIN could soon find a way out of the energy crisis, as a new report suggests that the UK could receive a massive supply of green electricity.
8 Sept 2022 - PM Liz Truss's opening speech on the energy policy debate
Firstly, by ramping up supply... we have created a new Energy Supply Taskforce under the leadership of Maddy McTernan. They are already negotiating new long term energy contracts with domestic and international gas suppliers to immediately bring down the cost of this intervention... We are also accelerating all sources of domestic energy, including North Sea oil and gas production... We will end the moratorium on extracting our huge reserves of shale, which could get gas flowing in as soon as six months, where there is local support.
9 Sept 2022 - Truss lifts ban on fracking, and will prop up fossil fuel companies in energy crisis
Europe is particularly reliant on Russian gas, with the nation supplying some 45% of the EU’s total gas imports last year. While imports from Russia made up just 4% of the UK’s total gas supply in 2021,...b ...plans, announced earlier this year, to diminish reliance on Russian imports by building a robust network of fuel suppliers across the US, the Netherlands and the Gulf
20 Sept 2022 - Britain blames Brussels for driving up UK energy bills in explosive new Brexit row
Britain has accused the EU of driving up U.K. energy bills by hundreds of millions of pounds per year by blocking cross-Channel energy cooperation following Brexit.
Under the Brexit trade and cooperation agreement signed in December 2020, the European Commission and the U.K. agreed to put in place a framework for future electricity trading which would come into effect this year.
However, a U.K. official said progress on agreeing to vital new trading rules has stalled since the summer, despite multiple attempts by London to secure an agreement amid the worst energy crisis in Europe in decades. The U.K. government believes Europe is dragging its feet due to the ongoing fight over the implementation of post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland.
The lack of an electricity trading framework meant that upon Britain’s exit from the EU single energy market on January 1, 2021, the U.K. moved to a more inefficient system for buying and selling electricity through subsea inter-connectors linking Britain with France, the Netherlands and Belgium. This is adding hundreds of millions of pounds per year to the energy bills of British households, according to the U.K. energy industry.
And two years after Brexit, Britain has not yet managed to be readmitted to the North Sea Energy Cooperation (NSEC) platform, an intergovernmental organization to develop offshore wind-farms in the North Sea region and accelerate the transition to renewables. The Commission kicked Britain out of the group in 2020 despite it not being an EU agency, ignoring calls by several member countries and the EU’s Green Deal chief Frans Timmermans for the U.K. to remain...
The U.K. is expected to flag this issue again at the upcoming meeting of the EU-U.K. specialized committee on energy, focused on energy security, due to take place on September 28.
New U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss and French President Emmanuel Macron tried to rebuild bridges on the issue during their first bilateral meeting, held Tuesday afternoon on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
21 Sept 2022 - UK Prime Minister Truss addresses the United Nations General Assembly (transcript here)
01:00 min: "...Geopolitics is entering a new era.."06:00 min: "We are cutting off the toxic power and pipelines from authoritarian regimes and strengthening our energy resilience.""We will ensure we cannot be coerced or harmed by the reckless actions of rogue actors abroad.""The free world needs this economic strength and resilience to push back against authoritarian aggression and win this new era of strategic competition.
We must do this together."
We are fortifying our deep security alliances in Europe and beyond through NATO and the Joint Expeditionary Force.
08:30 min: "The UK is providing funding, using the might of the City of London and our security capabilities to provide better alternatives to those offered by malign regimes.The resolute international response to Ukraine has shown how we can deliver decisive collective action.The response has been built on partnerships and alliances and also on being prepared to use new instruments – unprecedented sanctions, diplomatic action, and rapid military support.There has been a strength of collective purpose – we have met many times, spoken many times on the phone, we have made things happen.Now we must use these instruments in a more systematic way to push back on the economic aggression of authoritarian regimes.The G7 and our like-minded partners should act as an economic NATO, collectively defending our prosperity.If the economy of a partner is being targeted by an aggressive regime we should act to support them. All for one and one for all.
12:00 min "In all these areas, on all of the fronts, the time to act is now. This is a decisive moment in our history, in the history of this organization and in the history of freedom...
The story of 2022 could have been that of an authoritarian state rolling its tanks over the border of a peaceful neighbour and subjugating its people.
Instead, it is the story of freedom fighting back.
In the face of rising aggression we have shown we have the power to act and the resolve to see it through.
But this cannot be a one-off.
This must be a new era in which we commit to ourselves, our citizens, and this institution that we will do whatever it takes – whatever it takes to deliver for our people and defend our values."
Britain’s commitment to this is total.
We will be a dynamic, reliable and trustworthy partner.
26 Sept 2022 - Nordstream pipelenes are attacked.
29 Sept 2022 - UK Becomes Net Exporter of Electricity: Energy Update
6 Oct 2022 - PM Liz Truss: Time to find common cause with our European friends
Security, energy and migration are three of the most urgent priorities for the British people, so they are top of my agenda too. That’s why I am travelling to Prague for today’s European leaders’ meeting.
Today’s meeting is not an EU construct or an EU alternative. I am very clear about that. It brings together governments from across Europe, around a third of whom are outside the EU. A post-Brexit Britain, as an independent country outside the EU, should be involved in discussions that affect the entire continent and all of us here at home. We are taking part as an independent sovereign nation, and we will act as one.
Brexit was never about the UK stepping away from our proud and historic role as a leading nation in the region and beyond. We always believed we would find new ways of working that reflected our shared values and interests.
Our actions in Ukraine have shown this to be true. No European country has done more than the UK to arm the Ukrainians in their fight for freedom and to lead the imposition of economic sanctions on Russia. Yet our actions are all the stronger because of the way that we collaborated with our European friends.
13 Jan 2023 - Britain is a net electricity exporter for first time in 44 years
13 Jan 2023 - UK energy exports rise to meet European demandIncreased UK energy exports demonstrate the potential for more renewable energy development
- UK turned net power exporter in Q2, 2022
- UK LNG import capacity has played a key role in building European gas stocks
- Growing electricity interconnector capacity holds promise for increased renewable energy deployment
‘Land bridge’ to continental EuropeHowever, the UK has more capacity to import gas than it needs.
It has three liquified natural gas (LNG) import terminals, Dragon LNG, Grain LNG and South Hook, with combined capacity of 49.2 billion cubic metres a year (Bcm/yr).
[M: These points look like the mission drawn in UK energy security came to fruition (!)]
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