OilVoice - BERR Issues UK Energy Consumption Statistics

BERR Issues UK Energy Consumption Statistics

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Energy Trends and Quarterly Energy Prices publications are published today 26 June by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform. Energy Trends covers statistics on energy production and consumption, in total and by fuel, and provides an analysis of the year on year changes. The June edition of Energy Trends also includes articles on: "Renewable energy in 2007", and "Regional and local use of road transport fuels 2006". Quarterly Energy Prices covers prices to domestic and industrial consumers, prices of oil products and comparisons of international fuel prices.

TOTAL ENERGY: QUARTER 1 2008

Total Energy - consumption1
(1) Total inland consumption on a primary fuel input basis
(seasonally adjusted and temperature corrected annual rates).

* Total production in the first quarter of 2008 at 47.2 million tonnes of oil equivalent was 4.7 per cent lower than in the first quarter of 2007.

When examining seasonally adjusted and temperature corrected annualised rates:

* Total inland consumption on a primary fuel input basis was 228.2 million tonnes of oil equivalent in the first quarter of 2008, 0.6 per cent lower than in the first quarter of 2007.

* Between the first quarters of 2007 and 2008 coal and other solid fuel consumption fell by 6.3 per cent.

* Oil consumption decreased by 2.3 per cent.

* Gas consumption rose by 3.4 per cent.

* Primary electricity consumption decreased by 2.1 per cent.

COAL: QUARTER 1 2008

Coal production and imports
* Provisional figures for the first quarter of 2008 show that coal production (including an estimate for slurry) was down 6.4 per cent on the first quarter of 2007 at 3.8 million tonnes. The decrease was the product of a fall of 11.8 per cent in deep mined production and a decrease of 1.7 per cent in opencast production.

* The fall in deep mined production is in part due to the closure of Tower Colliery at the end of January 2008.

* Imports of coal in the first quarter of 2008 were 7.3 per cent lower than in the first quarter of 2007 at 11.2 million tonnes.

* 88 per cent of the coal imported in the first quarter of 2008 (9.8 million tonnes) was steam coal, largely for the power stations market.

OIL: QUARTER 1 2008

Demand for transport fuels
* Total indigenous UK production of crude oil and NGLs in the first quarter of 2008 decreased by 5.6 per cent compared with 2007 to 18.9 million tonnes. Nine new fields started production during the year ending March 2008. Without these new fields production of crude oil in the first quarter of 2008 would have been 11.4 per cent lower than a year ago.

* The UK was a net importer of oil and oil products in the first quarter of 2008 by 1.3 million tonnes. In the same period of 2007 the UK was a net exporter by 0.2 million tonnes.

* Overall primary demand for oil products in the first quarter of 2008 was 2.7 per cent higher than last year.

* Motor spirit deliveries fell by 3.0 per cent. Deliveries of Derv fuel increased by 3.9 per cent. Deliveries of aviation turbine fuel rose by 1.7 per cent.

GAS: QUARTER 1 2008

Production of natural gas
* Total indigenous UK production of natural gas in the first quarter of 2008 was 3.5 per cent lower than in the corresponding quarter of 2007. Overall, natural gas production is declining as UKCS reserves deplete.

* Compared with the first quarter of 2007, exports of natural gas in the first quarter of 2008 decreased by 7.6 per cent and imports increased by 14.3 per cent.

* Demand for gas in the first quarter of 2008 was 4.4 per cent higher than the level in the first quarter of 2007.

* Gas use for electricity generation was 10.7 per cent higher than in the first quarter of 2007.

* Provisionally, consumption in the domestic sector rose by 7.2 per cent, while public administration, commerce and agriculture, consumption rose by 0.3 per cent. Consumption in the industrial sector fell by 8.7 per cent.

ELECTRICITY: QUARTER 1 2008

Electricity supplied
* Fuel used by generators in the first quarter of 2008 was at the same level as in the first quarter of 2007.

* Coal use during the quarter was 8.0 per cent lower than a year earlier.

* Total electricity supplied by all generators in the first quarter of 2008 was 2.1 per cent higher (+2.1 TWh) than a year earlier.

* Final consumption of electricity rose by 2.4 per cent in the first quarter of 2008. Domestic use increased by 2.1 per cent and consumption by commercial, public administration, transport and agricultural customers was up by 3.7 per cent. Industrial use of electricity was 1.7 per cent higher.

RENEWABLES: 2007

A special feature in the June 2008 edition of Energy Trends looks at Renewable energy in 2007. It includes summary renewables statistics for 2007, which are published for the first time. A full set of renewables statistics will appear in the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics, which will be published on 31 July 2008. The main features of the latest statistics are:

Renewable generating capacity
* Electricity generated from all renewables as a percentage of total UK electricity generation rose to 5.0 per cent in 2007 using the international definition of renewables. In 2006 on the same basis it was it was 4.5 per cent.

* In 2007 the percentage of UK electricity sales that were from sources eligible for the Renewables Obligation (RO) was 4.9 per cent, up from 4.4 per cent in 2006.

* Total electricity generation from all renewable sources in 2007 was 19,664 GWh, 81/2 per cent up on 2006.

* Generation from biomass grew only marginally, but landfill gas, which was the main contributor, rose by 6 per cent. However, there was a 23 per cent fall in generation from the co-firing of biomass with fossil fuels.

* Generation from onshore wind grew by 11 per cent; and generation from offshore wind grew by 20 per cent and as a result wind became the leading renewable technology in the UK in 2007 (in terms of electricity generated) overtaking hydro despite hydro generation being at a new record level in 2007.

* On the basis to be used for measuring progress towards the EU renewables target for which it is proposed that the UK reaches 15 per cent by 2020, the percentage in 2007 reached 1.8 per cent up from 1.5 per cent in 2006.