We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to undertake a reassessment of UK Energy Supplies, in particular evaluate the risk of an imminent peak or plateau in global oil production.”
Details of Petition:
“The Government considers that the world’s oil and gas resources are sufficient to sustain economic growth for the foreseeable future. One question is how long is the forseeable future, but many experts now agree that global oil production is likely to plateau and peak within the next 5 years. Furthermore, a significant number of senior figures in the oil industry anticipate an imminent ceiling on oil production and the International Energy Agency expects a Supply Crunch before 2012. Despite this and unlike several other countries, the UK has published no study into the availability of future oil and gas supplies. Indeed the Energy White Paper still expects UK oil consumption to rise in the medium term. This petition highlights the need for a major reappraisal by UKG given increasing concerns about the reliability of world reserve data and declining production from 64 of the 98 oil-producing countries.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
The Government’s assessment is that the world’s oil resources are sufficient to prevent global total oil production peaking in the foreseeable future. This is consistent with the assessment made by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its recent 2007 World Energy Outlook (WEO), which concludes that proven reserves are already larger than the cumulative production needed to meet rising demand until at least 2030.
The UK Government is working to secure the country’s future energy supply and is committed to encouraging the dialogue with oil producing countries to discuss international oil markets and to promote free, transparent and open oil markets. We are working to deliver safe, secure and sustainable energy supplies and ultimately a low-carbon economy.
The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) produces several publications annually, such as the Energy Markets Outlook (EMO), which assess the security and current trends of UK energy supply. HM Treasury published an analytical document to inform the G8 Finance Ministers meeting held in Japan on 13-14 June 2008. It outlines the Government’s analysis behind recent price increases in oil and other commodities and sets out the United Kingdom’s vision for how the international community can work together to ensure efficient and effective global commodity markets. This document can be accessed from: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/C/A/globalcommodities_190608.pdf.
Internationally, at the G8 Energy Ministers’ Meeting in Japan on 8 June 2008, a comprehensive Plan of Action covering energy technologies, energy efficiency and R&D networks, among many other initiatives was agreed. At the Jeddah Energy Meeting on 22 June 2008, all participants called for the IEA, OPEC and IEF Secretariat to collaborate immediately and produce shared analysis on these issues in order to better understand the market situation and establish a common understanding of the drivers of oil prices and the likely future demand and supply trends. Through the Prime Minister’s Global Energy Initiative the UK is supporting this work and has committed to hosting a major follow-up conference in London in December aimed at enhancing the dialogue between consumers and producers of oil.
More information on the work undertaken to ensure the UK’s energy supplies can be found at: http://www.berr.gov.uk/energy/index.html.
