Outlook 2025: UK offers upstream opportunity as transition and policy evolve
The importance of the oil and gas sector to the UK and the value of its assets mean 2025 could offer new opportunities and a recovery in activity
The UK upstream continues to be under pressure as the basin ages and successive governments have leaned on the sector for increased tax revenues. The country, on the other hand, maintains a significant reliance on oil and gas for its energy requirements, and the extent to which a material pivot to renewable sources will be achieved in the coming years remains a subject of debate. As such, not only is UK oil and gas well positioned to continue making a meaningful contribution to the country’s energy use, the underlying value of the assets, infrastructure and services remains, and ongoing policy clarity during 2025 could—in our view—drive renewed opportunities for operators and a recovery in s
Also in this section
10 March 2026
By shutting the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has cut exports of distillate-rich Middle Eastern crude, jet fuel and diesel, and is holding the energy market hostage
10 March 2026
Eni’s director for global gas and LNG portfolio, Cristian Signoretto, discusses how demand will respond to rising LNG supply, and how the company is expanding its own gas and LNG operations through disciplined, capital-efficient investments
9 March 2026
Petroleum Economist analysis sees increases in output from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Kazakhstan among others before region’s murky descent
9 March 2026
Energy sanctions are becoming an increasingly prominent tool of US foreign policy, with the country’s growth in oil and gas production allowing it to impose pressure on rivals without jeopardising its own energy security or that of its allies, argues Matthew McManus, a visiting fellow at the National Center for Energy Analytics
