Britain gets most of its natural gas from Norway, which supplies around 43% of the country’s total gas through undersea pipelines. The rest comes from a mix of domestic production in the North Sea, liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipped in by tanker, and smaller volumes through interconnector pipelines linked to mainland Europe.
Norway: The Biggest Single Source
Norway is the UK’s largest gas supplier by a wide margin, accounting for 43% of gross supply. Nearly all of Britain’s piped gas imports come from Norway, with roughly 33.5 billion cubic metres flowing through undersea pipelines each year. The most important of these is the Langeled pipeline, which runs from Norway’s Nyhamna processing plant to Easington on the east coast of England. Two other Norwegian pipelines, Vesterled and FLAGS, also feed into the UK system through Scotland.
The Belgian and Dutch interconnector pipelines that link Britain to continental Europe still exist, but in recent years they’ve mainly been used to export gas from Britain rather than import it. The BBL pipeline from the Netherlands to Bacton in Norfolk can only physically move gas in one direction (towards Britain), but a virtual reverse flow system lets traders effectively send gas the other way. The IUK interconnector between Bacton and Zeebrugge in Belgium runs in both directions, and for several years has predominantly carried gas out of the UK.
LNG Imports: The US Leads
Liquefied natural gas arrives by ship at three terminals around Britain’s coast: Grain LNG on the Isle of Grain in Kent, South Hook and Dragon LNG, both at Milford Haven in Wales. These terminals can receive massive tankers carrying gas that has been cooled to minus 162°C, converting it back into gas before feeding it into the national pipeline network.
Over half of Britain’s LNG imports now come from the United States. This is a relatively recent shift driven by the boom in US shale gas production. Norway is the second largest LNG supplier, overtaking Qatar in 2024 with 1.2 million tonnes of shipments. Qatar, once the dominant LNG source for the UK, has slipped to third place with less than 1 million tonnes after several years of decline.
LNG plays a crucial role because it gives Britain access to a global gas market rather than relying solely on pipelines from a single region. When European pipeline supplies tighten, as they did after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, LNG tankers can be redirected from other parts of the world to fill the gap.
Domestic Production in the North Sea
Britain still produces its own gas from fields beneath the North Sea, though output has been falling steadily since peaking around the year 2000. At that point, the UK was actually a net gas exporter. Today, domestic production covers a shrinking share of demand, which is why imports from Norway and LNG have become so important. The remaining fields are concentrated in the southern and central North Sea, operated by a mix of large and smaller energy companies.
Russian Gas Is Banned
Since 5 December 2022, the UK has officially banned the import of Russian LNG along with any related financial or brokering services tied to those shipments. Even before the ban, Russian gas made up a small fraction of UK supply compared to countries like Germany, which depended heavily on Russian pipeline gas. Britain’s geographic position, with access to Norwegian pipelines and Atlantic-facing LNG terminals, meant it was never as exposed to Russian supply disruption as continental Europe.
What All This Gas Is Used For
Natural gas remains deeply embedded in British daily life. Of the gas that reaches final consumers, nearly 59% goes to residential use, overwhelmingly for heating homes and hot water through the roughly 23 million gas boilers installed across the country. Industry accounts for about 20% of final gas consumption, used in manufacturing processes, chemicals, and food production.
Beyond direct consumer use, gas also generates a significant portion of Britain’s electricity. In 2024, gas-fired power stations produced around 30.5% of the UK’s total electricity. These plants typically ramp up and down to balance the grid when wind and solar output fluctuates, making gas a flexible backup even as renewable capacity grows. Altogether, about 60% of Britain’s gas supply goes to final consumers, with the rest used in power generation and the energy sector itself.
Why Supply Diversity Matters
Britain’s gas supply strategy relies on not being too dependent on any single source or route. The combination of Norwegian pipelines, domestic North Sea production, and LNG from multiple countries gives the UK more flexibility than many European neighbours had when Russian supplies were cut off in 2022. That said, the heavy reliance on Norway (43% of supply from one country) and the decline of domestic production mean the system is not without vulnerabilities. Any major disruption to Norwegian infrastructure or a sustained spike in global LNG prices would be felt quickly in British energy bills.