The EU Faces Important Issues for Oil and Gas Supplies

Although the EU has an important oil and gas industry, which is mainly centered in the UK sector, its reserves are very small in a global context. As far as individual EU countries are concerned, reserves are very small indeed in global terms, with all EU countries having less than 0.5% of global oil and gas reserves. Geographically, the EU’s oil and gas fields in the North Sea are adjacent to those in the Norwegian sector which, although not an EU member state, has close connections with the EU for oil and gas production.

Oil and gas production in the EU (and Norway) is beginning to decline. As such, in future, an increasing amount of the EU’s oil and gas requirements will have to be supplied by imports. (Exploration for new reserves is taking place in the EU, but there is little evidence that new discoveries are likely to be made that will replace the current and mature fields.)

Business Wire