Readings in the UK Energy Security

Abdo, Hafez; Kouhy, R

Abstract

Over the last few decades, the debate about ‘Peak Oil’ became increasingly common and frustrating to governments, oil companies and individuals. Also in the last decade or so, some unusual events took places, which have raised the concern about the future of energy resources. These events lead policy makers to consider what is known today as ‘Energy Security’.

The UK is one of these countries that fears the unknown future should petroleum resources worldwide become scarce or vanish. After the dwindling of the North Sea production, the UK found itself on the brink of losing its energy self-sufficiency (Macalister, 2010). This paper sets the following questions: has the UK’s oil and gas production peaked yet? If so, does the UK have a serious energy security problem? and if so, how this problem may be solved and what are the possible short, medium and long-term solutions for such a concern? In answering these questions, the paper discusses the concerns and challenges to the UK energy security and brings about the Government plans for tackling these concerns. It is found that the UK does not experience an energy security problem on the short to medium-term, but it may suffer energy insecurity on the longer-term.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 25, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Mar 30, 2016
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jan 22, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 24, 2020
• Journal: Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy
• Print ISSN: 1556-7249
• Electronic ISSN: 1556-7257
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 18-25
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15567249.2011.588669
• Keywords: Energy, Security, UK
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3782963
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15567249.2011.588669
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Energy Sources, Part B on 30 March 2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/15567249.2011.588669