(c) offshoreenergytoday.com
The headline in Energy Voice yesterday was: ‘UK gas output rises in 2016 as Laggan-Tormore delivers boost, report says’ but I’m not having that. Production from this giant field west of Shetland has been largely responsible for a 3.6% increase in UK output. The supplies come 90 miles into a Shetland plant from the field. Total won an award for the project as the most innovate in the world in 2015 and at least they had the decency to give an appropriate name. Hurricane Energy seems to think Lancaster and Halifax are suitable names for Shetland fields! What next: ‘Parson’s End?’
The demand for gas, mainly for electricity generation across the UK was significantly up in 2016 – 12.6%. Domestic use was only up 5.1%. We clearly have strong market opportunity in England after independence given the UK Government’s well-known anxiety about reliance on Russian supplies on security grounds. I hear the story about Berwick still being at war with Russia is not true but that Putin guy is no respecter of such details. Cross him and the taps are turned off.
Due to the above increases in demand, UK Gas exports were 23% lower than the previous year. UK Imports of gas were 5.9% up, most of it coming from Norway. After independence, Scottish gas exports will, of course, be enormous and highly valuable. The infrastructure will already be in place but this time they’ll be paying for it. We might of course just keep it all for ourselves and so our imports will be zero.
Talking-up Scotland 