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
16 January 2026
The country’s global energy importance and domestic political fate are interlocked, highlighting its outsized oil and gas powers, and the heightened fallout risk
16 January 2026
The global maritime oil transport sector enters 2026 facing a rare convergence of crude oversupply, record newbuild deliveries and the potential easing of several geopolitical disruptions that have shaped trade flows since 2022
15 January 2026
Rebuilding industry, energy dominance and lower energy costs are key goals that remain at odds in 2026
14 January 2026
Chavez’s socialist reforms boosted state control but pushed knowledge and capital out of the sector, opening the way for the US shale revolution
