There isn't one single "North Sea pipeline"; ownership varies by system, but major ones include the Forties Pipeline System, owned by INEOS, transporting much of the UK's oil/gas, and the Ninian Pipeline, a consortium including CNR International, EnQuest, Total, and Chevron. Other key pipelines, like the SEAL system (gas), are operated by companies like TotalEnergies for partners like Shell, while Nord Stream (Russia-Germany, Baltic Sea) was a Gazprom-led project, not strictly North Sea.
The Norwegian and British sectors hold most of the large oil reserves. It is estimated that the Norwegian sector alone contains 54% of the sea's oil reserves and 45% of its gas reserves. More than half of the North Sea oil reserves have been extracted, according to official sources in both Norway and the UK.
The five shareholders of the Nord Stream consortium are Gazprom international projects North 1 LLC (Gazprom Group company), Wintershall Dea AG, PEG Infrastruktur AG (E. ON), N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie and ENGIE. Gazprom international projects North 1 LLC holds a 51 percent stake in the pipeline project.
In August 2024 media reported that in June German authorities issued a European arrest warrant for a Ukrainian national Volodymyr Z. living near Warsaw suspected of having used the yacht Andromeda together with two others to sabotage the Nord Stream pipeline.
Common Wealth found that just 61 companies own North Sea oil and gas licences; most of them are publicly listed, while one-third are privately-owned and therefore less transparent. A handful of owners are state-owned enterprises from China, Russia, Norway, Korea and the United Arab Emirates.
Venezuela owns approximately 18% (or one-fifth) of the world's proven oil reserves, making it the country with the largest reserves globally, holding around 303 billion barrels as of recent data, though its production levels don't always match this vast resource.
Nord Stream 2 (German–English mixed expression for "North Stream 2"; Russian: Северный поток — 2) is a 1,234-kilometre-long (767 mi) natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany running through the Baltic Sea, financed by Gazprom and several European energy companies.
The UK doesn't buy gas from Russia anymore. In 2017, Russia started exporting Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to the UK, sending an average of 21.8TWh per year over the next few years. But after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the UK cut off this supply line entirely.
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In November 2025, China remained the largest global buyer of Russian fossil fuels, accounting for 45% (EUR 5.4 bn) of Russia's export revenues from the top five importers. Crude oil made up 58% (EUR 3.1 bn) of China's purchases, followed by coal at 16% (EUR 899 mn) and pipeline gas at 8% (EUR 463 mn).
Until the summer, the EU would likely be able to survive large-scale disruption to Russian gas supplies, based on a combination of increased LNG imports (to the limited extent this is technically possible) and demand-side measures such as industrial gas curtailments.
Support for Vladimir Putin in Russia generally hovers high, with recent polls showing approval around 79-86%, boosted by events like the Ukraine invasion, though varying by pollster, age, and specific policies, with some analysts suggesting a portion of this support stems from a "rally around the flag" effect, while genuine enthusiastic support for the war itself might be lower (around 10-15%).
Put simply, our North Sea reserves are finite and largely exhausted. This means there isn't enough gas left to anchor our energy system against rising demand and, even if extraction could be increased, it wouldn't lower energy bills or deliver the energy security we need.
In 1882, Standard Oil Trust created a network of Standard Oil companies throughout the country, led by a board of trustees, where Rockefeller owned over one third of the certificates. By the late 1880s, Standard Oil controlled 90% of American refineries.
The 10 wealthiest people in the oil industry
Gas delivery disruption, April 2022 – present. On 26 April 2022, Gazprom announced it would stop delivering natural gas to Poland via the Yamal–Europe pipeline and to Bulgaria from the following day as both countries had failed to make due payments to Gazprom in rubles.
Total UK imports from Russia amounted to £444 million in the four quarters to the end of Q2 2025 (a decrease of 13.5% or £69 million in current prices, compared to the four quarters to the end of Q2 2024).
German natural gas imports from Russia monthly 2021-2024
To compare, in August 2022, the import volume of the named commodity stood at around 953 million cubic meters. Over the period observed, the highest figure was recorded at 5.2 billion cubic meters in December 2021.
On March 24, 2017, Trump signed a presidential permit to allow TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline. The State Department issued a new Record of Decision on the same facts as before, but reversed itself to find that granting the permit would be in the national interest.
Germany's decision to prevent Nord Stream 2 from becoming operational followed a July 2021 joint U.S.-German statement on energy security in which Germany committed to take action against Russia (including possible sanctions) if Russia used its energy resources as a weapon or committed further aggression toward Ukraine ...
On 5 April 1993, Lukoil transformed itself from a state-owned enterprise to a private open joint-stock company based on Presidential Decree No. 1403 of 17 November 1992.
In 2022, the United Kingdom was ranked 16th out of the 38 OECD countries in terms of the tax-to-GDP ratio. 1. In this note, the country with the highest level or share is ranked first and the country with the lowest level or share is ranked 38th. Equal to the OECD average from value-added taxes.
For amounts between £1,048.01 - £4,189 per month, you will pay 20% Income Tax. For amounts between £4,189.01 - £12,500 per month, you will pay 40% Income Tax. Over £12,500 per month, you will pay 45% Income Tax.
The United Kingdom has a highly efficient and strong social security system, which comprises roughly 24.5% of GDP. The service sector dominates, contributing 82% of GDP; the financial services industry is particularly important, and London is the second-largest financial centre in the world.