Britain's gas imports surge as Miliband abandons North Sea
Government figures published on Thursday show imports jumped by 20pc between January and March just as North Sea gas output plummeted 6.9pc. The fall comes as the Energy Secretary's ban on new drilling begins to bite.
The revelations come just days after Donald Trump lambasted Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Miliband for imposing a 78pc windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas profits and for banning new drilling.
The US president posted on his Truth Social site: 'North Sea Oil is a TREASURE CHEST for the United Kingdom. The taxes are so high, however, that it makes no sense. They have essentially told drillers and oil companies that, 'we don't want you'.'
While Mr Miliband is ending new production in British waters, demand for gas remains strong. Consumption jumped by 8.5pc during the first three months of the year as freezing temperatures prompted gas-fired power stations to turn on to help support the country's energy system.
Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, said: 'Labour's plans to shut down the North Sea when we're going to need gas for decades is sheer economic insanity. No other country is doing this. It will only make us more reliant on foreign imports.'
Mike Tholen.of Offshore Energies UK, which represents the UK oil and gas industry, said the UK would need gas for decades to come both to provide home heating and to generate electricity when renewables failed.
He said: 'The UK needs a diverse energy system which offers multiple choices. Wind will provide an increasing share of the mix but intermittency will remain an issue for which gas power generation will provide back-up.'
The slump in gas production coincided with a fall in winter wind speeds caused by periods of unusually still weather. Output from Britain's wind farms fell 13pc during the first three months of the year, with windless spells helping push the UK close to blackouts on at least one occasion.
'Near record low wind speeds for the quarter led to a 13pc drop in wind generation,' said the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero report. 'Wind generation provided 28.5pc of the total generation, short of the 38.1pc provided by gas. The increase in gas generation reflected low wind speeds and the result of a drop in net imports of electricity.'
Richard Tice, Reform UK's energy spokesman, said: 'Despite extra wind power investment and billions more in subsidies, wind generation fell 13pc over winter. Plus, government policy meant we produced less gas from the North Sea so imports surged. This is the economics of a madhouse.'
About 180 of the UK's 280 oil and gas fields are expected to shut down by 2030 in response to the previous government's windfall taxes and Mr Miliband's ban on new drilling.
The majority of the gas imports came from Norway, the US and Qatar. Gas from Norway comes via an undersea pipeline, while imports from elsewhere arrive as liquefied natural gas (LNG) on giant shipping tankers.
Barnaby Wharton, of Renewable UK, said: 'There is no one who credibly believes we could meet the UK's electricity needs by burning the gas that's left in the North Sea.
'We successfully drilled nearly all of our North Sea oil and gas in the boom years of the 80s and 90s. Now we need to capitalise on our world leading wind resources or we are going to end up importing billions of pounds of foreign gas to keep the lights on.'
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