For the three months October to December 2006 compared to the same period a year earlier:

Latest three months Total production of indigenous primary fuels in the three months to December 2006 stood at 48.0 million tonnes of oil equivalent, 11.7 per cent lower than the corresponding period a year ago.

Regular readers will not be surprised by the core data, in summary:

The Department of Trade and Industry ( DTI ) today (22nd Feb 2007) released the latest national energy statistics to the end of 2006. The Excel sheets can be downloaded here

electricity produced from nuclear sources fell by 24.1 per cent;

The critical point in my mind is this:This is due to the extended closure of several power stations due to defects in boiler pipes and aggressive cracking of the graphite cores. The reactors are approaching end of life, these problems were anticipated to a certain degree and are resulting in reduced availability. These problems do make it increasingly unlikely that life time extensions will be granted.

Production is of course only half the story. To complete the picture we must also consider the consumption data also published today:

Main points

In 2006 total consumption was 232.9 million tonnes of oil equivalent, 0.6 per cent lower than in 2005. Within this, consumption of oil had risen by 0.8 per cent, consumption of Coal and other Solids had risen by 9.6 per cent whereas consumption of natural gas had fallen by 5.0 per cent. Latest three months

Total inland consumption of primary fuels, which includes deliveries into consumption, was 62.2 million tonnes of oil equivalent during the three months to December 2006, 2.4 per cent lower than recorded for the same period a year ago. On a temperature corrected basis, total inland consumption of primary fuels was 0.6 per cent higher during the three months to December 2006 than that recorded for the same period a year ago. For October to December 2006 annualised temperature corrected and seasonally adjusted figures, compared to the same period a year earlier show that: consumption of oil had risen by 7.8 per cent;

consumption of coal and other solid fuels had fallen by 1.3 per cent;

consumption of natural gas remained broadly unchanged.

This brings us to the familiar picture with its rapidly growing gap representing an increasing balance of payments deficit:



Source: DTI Digest of UK Energy Statistics

Previously on The Oil Drum

The architecture of UK offshore oil production in relation to future production models