THREAD: Something curious turns up in the gas statistics released this morning by government
Curious because at a time of eye-wateringly high gas prices, with Vladimir Putin at the Ukraine's door, with warnings of dire outcomes everywhere and the oil industry telling us that continuing UK oil and gas extraction is necessary for energy security ogauthority.co.uk/news-publicati…
...at a time when politicians like @RobertJenrick telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/2… are urging 'us' to increase 'our production' of oil and gas to avoid exposure to internationally-sparked price hikes...
...and when supporters of #fracking say 'gas is the only answer' and the sensible response is to get drilling telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/01/0…...
...against this rhetorical backdrop painting British-produced gas as the only commodity standing between us and every Apocalyptic horseman...
...the stats show that the UK has been exporting unusually large amounts of gas. Yes, you read that right - exporting
The UK energy statistics tables gov.uk/government/sta… show that in the last three months for which data is available (Sept-Nov) – a period after the current 'crisis' entered full swing – the UK exported 31,975 GWh of gas
The figure for the same three months of 2020 was 15,830 – about half as much. OK, you may say, but that was in Covid times so maybe that's the anomaly... except that the 2019 figure was 19,633; and for 2018, 16,439. This winter is the clear outlier
So why, at a time when Britain is apparently crying out for gas, is this happening? Well... for the fairly obvious reason that the gas doesn't belong to the British public or the British government, but to whichever company gets it out of the ground
And as any company would, they're selling it for the best price they can get. Which happens to be, for large volumes of it, by sending it through the pipeline into Belgium and the Netherlands
This is utterly normal corporate behaviour, and completely to be expected. But it sure knocks a massive hole in the argument that Britain needs 'its own' gas production for energy security
In reality there is no 'our gas'. It is extracted from rock in British territory: but the companies don't have to be British, nor the investors, nor the supply chain. It's not directed by the British government or used by the British people. It's 'the company's gas', not 'ours'
Fracking wouldn't change this. Nor would increasing North Sea production, were that even feasible. Unless you want to argue for state ownership of the gas produced, it will always get sold where the profit margin is biggest...
...and energy security will always depend on UK companies (not the government) paying the market price
So, argue for continuing UK oil and gas production on the basis of jobs, balance of payments or whatever argument you want, but... please let's not have any more of this 'increasing UK production is essential at a time of crisis'. Because the export figures tell a different story
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