March 19, 2018 - United Kingdom (UK) oil and natural gas production have grown on average almost 9% and 4% per year, respectively, from 2014 through 2016. Among European countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the UK was the second-largest producer of petroleum and other liquids in 2016; only Norway produced more. The UK was the third-largest producer of natural gas in OECD Europe, surpassed only by Norway and the Netherlands.

Coal production in the UK has generally been declining since the early 1900s, falling from 322 million short tons (MMst) in 1913 (the first year for which annual data are available) to a record low of 5 MMst in 2016.

Coal consumption in the UK peaked at 244 MMst in 1956, the year in which the UK enacted the Clean Air Act. The Clean Air Act—prompted by the great London smog of 1952—prohibited the emission of dark smoke from industrial buildings, private homes, and railroad locomotives. At the time, industrial coal use accounted for more than half of total UK coal consumption, and railroad and home use accounted for almost a quarter of total coal consumption. The remaining coal consumption was mainly in the electric sector where coal consumption did not peak until the 1980s at slightly less than 100 MMst. Coal consumption in 2016 was 20 MMst, two-thirds of which was used in the electric sector. 

Environmental regulations, competing fuels, and competing foreign coal supply sources have been the main drivers of coal's long decline in the UK. Natural gas began replacing coal in the 1970s when natural gas production began in the North Sea. In the 1990s, coal's displacement by natural gas accelerated as regulatory changes opened the electric sector to more investment in natural gas-fired generation capacity. Coal consumption experienced a brief resurgence in 2012, growing 14 MMst from 2011 levels. This resurgence in demand did not extend to UK coal production but was instead accompanied by an uptick in imports. The availability of cheap coal from the United States was one of the main drivers in the growth of coal consumption, along with relatively high natural gas prices and low carbon prices. Coal consumption resumed its decline in 2013, falling an average of more than 25% per year from 2012 through 2016, as natural gas prices declined and as the UK's Carbon Price Floor policy increased the cost of carbon emissions.

The UK had an estimated 77 MMst of recoverable coal reserves at the end of 2016, according to BP's Statistical Review of World Energy 2017. Deep coal mines had been operating in the UK since the 1800s, however the last deep coal mine in the UK closed in December 2015. Several surface mines remain in operation in the UK and are mainly located in central and northern England, south Wales, and central and southern Scotland. 

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