The Guardian: Domestic gas reserves could dry up in three years, report warns
UK fossil fuel reserves are heading alarmingly fast towards the bottom of the barrel. Domestic gas reserves are set to dry up within three years, while deposits of coal and oil could be used up by 2018 and 2019 respectively.
The alarming findings appear in a new "snapshot" report (pdf) by the Global Sustainability Institute at Anglia Ruskin University. If true, then the UK may be facing an increasing dependency on fuel imports from resource-rich states such as Russia and Saudi Arabia – with all the political risk and price volatility that such a reality implies.
So are the predictions accurate? The fossil fuel lobby insists the real picture is actually very different. The North Sea still has an estimated 24bn barrels in untapped oil and gas reserves, according the UK Oil and Gas Industry Association.