Leaders in the UK from both government and industry have banded together to form a taskforce aimed at mitigating challenges faced by the nation’s energy supply chain. The UK Energy Supply Chain taskforce, with the Energy Industries Council (EIC) as secretariat, will provide an amplified voice for the entire UK energy supply chain and a means for government to work directly with industry in a coordinated way that will help to deliver pace and scale of change, developing a coherent plan for a UK clean growth over short-, medium- and long-term timescales, meeting the UK’s decarbonization commitments and ambitions.
“There are now permanent and real threats to the UK’s energy supply chain unless long-term capability and competitiveness strategies are implemented to protect them,” a statement from the EIC read. “The UK’s energy supply chain needs a clear ‘seed and root’ plan to be developed and implemented, in order to ensure healthy and viable capability to meet UK and export demands across all technologies, and this plan needs to engage with all key stakeholders across the increasingly integrated energy supply chain.”
Last year saw unprecedented times for the UK energy industry. The impact of COVID-19, the resultant oil price collapse, increased governmental and societal policies and pressures to decarbonize, and a supply chain still recovering from the devastating 2014 oil crash, have all highlighted the fragility of UK energy security, capacity, and competitiveness.
The taskforce will link into each energy subsector, including oil and gas, civil nuclear, renewable, conventional power, energy transition and the circular economy, and each strategic UK energy initiative, such as the Hydrogen Advisory Group, the North Sea Transition Deal, and the Industrial Clusters.