U.K. oil production down, renewable use up

A review of the British energy sector for 2011 concludes the United Kingdom remains a net importer of oil products but the use of renewable energy is rising. The British Department of Energy and Climate Change found the region imported about 8.3 million tons of oil and oil products during the third quarter of 2011. That's up from the 4.9 million tons imported during the same period last year. The DECC said production of oil on the domestic market fell 22.7 percent and natural gas fell 29.4 percent because of maintenance work and slowdowns at some of its domestic oil and natural gas fields. This was the largest annual quarter-on-quarter decline recorded, the report said. Natural gas, the report found, was used to generate 46.5 percent of the electricity in the region while coal accounted for around 23.1 percent. Renewable energy for electricity generation increased from 8.1 percent in the third quarter of 2010 to 9 percent during the same period this year. Overall, the report determined, energy consumption for the United Kingdom fell about 2 percent compared with last year when considering fluctuations in mean temperatures and weather.