By GB News (World News) | Created at 2026-09-25 21:30:55 | Updated at 2026-09-25 22:54:45
1 hour ago
Britain has been warned its current energy regime is just one shock away from crisis following a prolonged period of global instability, leading experts to warn the UK must diversify its portfolio and end reliance on overseas energy imports or see power bills explode to never-before-seen levels.
GB News has been told that an overreliance on imported energy at punishing prices has pushed the economy to the brink and threatens to leave the UK dangerously exposed.
Experts from across the energy and defence sectors have urged policymakers to address the critical resilience gap ahead of the “next global crisis.”
“The energy shocks of 2022 and 2026 really tipped the UK over the edge,” Dan Marks, fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) told The People’s Channel.
“We are at a point where there really is not enough fiscal space for another shock like that.
“If there are persistent spikes of this kind of scale, the UK strategy will no longer work,” he warned.
Almost half of Britain’s energy needs are supplied from overseas, with imported energy accounting for 43 per cent of all usage in 2025.
Gas and diesel are critical vulnerabilities, with 63 per cent of Britain’s gas supply and 55 per cent of domestic road-diesel demand coming from overseas.
Britain has been warned it is 'one shock away' from an energy crisis 
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This means a significant amount of the UK’s energy supply is at the mercy of the global market at a time of major global instability.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent loss of Russian energy supplies to Western markets sent gas and oil prices soaring in 2022, exposing the vulnerability of countries dependent on international energy markets.
In 2026, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and conflict across the Middle East pushed energy prices to new highs.
Most recently, Iran-backed Houthis attacked Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, which saw energy exports to Europe cancelled for October.
Almost half of Britain’s energy needs are supplied from overseas, with imported energy accounting for 43 per cent of all usage in 2025
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During prolonged disruptions, the UK relies on its ability to compete with other countries in the international market, paying significant premiums to attract scarce supplies.
“As long as we were able to pay for it being shipped to the UK… availability wasn't an issue. Even at the height of that energy crisis, we still managed to maintain security of supply,” Adam Berman, Energy UK Director of Policy and Advocacy, explained.
Since 2019, the Ofgem price cap has partially insulated British households from those spiralling energy costs by limiting the unit rates and standing charges suppliers can charge domestic customers.
However, this relative buffer does not fully shield consumers from global shocks, with the price cap projected to rise 25 per cent in January and add around £427 to a typical annual bill.
International crises, chiefly the war in Ukraine and Iran, have shaken the global energy market 
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British industry also does not benefit from the price cap, as most major companies negotiate their own energy bills with suppliers, and has been “decimated” by spiralling costs since 2022.
Mr Marks explained: “The point of energy security strategy is not just to have adequate supply, or even to have adequate supplies at affordable prices.
“The point is to maintain energy's function in the economy and society, and that it hasn't been doing.”
He warned that there had been a “massive deterioration of major strategic industries” and a “huge deterioration of the Government balance sheet” amid global energy price hikes.
This means energy-intensive industries, which make up much of the nation’s most critical strategic manufacturing, such as steel mills and chemical plants, have been crippled by punishing bills.
This month, INEOS founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe was forced to mothball three chemical plants in Hull over “ridiculously” high gas prices.
“It kills businesses,” the Rusi fellow explained, adding that those companies were already suffering in competition with energy-abundant China.
Looking ahead, analysts have warned the UK’s current energy import regime will be increasingly ill-equipped to manage the unstable world it now finds itself in.
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“We have taken a holiday from geopolitics… We have been incredibly naive about the fact that we live in a very dangerous world,” Rupert Darwall, senior fellow at the National Centre for Energy Analytics, declared.
A recent Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) report acknowledged relying on market forces alone may not be sufficient to protect the UK against low-probability, high-impact energy shocks.
Andy Mayer, CEO of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said Britain no longer had the same assurances it could pay its way through energy crises.
“The West has typically been able to compete with Asia on price and secure cargoes, particularly when competing with weaker economies. But that advantage is diminishing.”
In such a scenario, the UK could be forced to pay ever-larger sums to ensure supplies are not redirected to higher bidders in emerging economies.
This declining leverage could prove a fatal flaw in keeping the UK supplied through the international market, which is bracing for further disruption.
“In the coming months, there could be real permanent changes to the oil and gas industry. The Middle East will never be the same again,” Mr Marks said.
“Countries themselves will come out of this with a very different set of priorities to what they came in with.”
Spiralling energy costs have crippled strategic energy-intensive British industry 
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Saudi Arabian geopolitical analyst Salman Al-Ansar warned that more threats to Gulf energy infrastructure were likely, explaining: “Winter is coming, and demand for oil and gas will increase significantly.
“Under the current circumstances, we could see energy prices skyrocket to historically unprecedented levels, potentially pushing the global economy into a severe recession.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine has been crippling Russia’s energy industry with precision strikes on oil refineries and storage facilities.
“If Ukraine escalates its attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, there is potential for the Russian sector to collapse at some point,” Mr Marks said.
“It’s really a gloves-off moment. Neither Russia nor Ukraine can defend themselves effectively, and there's a possibility that they will both go for broke and really start to pummel each other.”
“This winter could be very harsh for us, but in response, we will have no choice but to make it painful for Russia too,” Volodymyr Zelensky told the UN General Assembly this week.
Reeling from Ukraine’s strikes, Russia has barred diesel exports for domestic use, as the price of the vital fuel soars to all-time highs.
President Donald Trump has also proposed a US diesel export ban to combat record pump prices across America.
Experts warned that a 'crunch point' could hit the UK as global crises escalate in severity and regularity 
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A major drop in diesel supply to the global market could pose major challenges to the UK, given that almost half of its domestic road-diesel demand is met through imports.
“We get about a fifth of our diesel from America, but because we're so import-dependent, there'll be other countries hoarding theirs. So it could get tight quite quickly,” economist Liam Halligan said.
Mr Marks suggested this, combined with further crises in the Middle East, could be a “crunch point” for Britain’s energy regime.
In the event of an acute physical gas shortage, Government emergency powers include securing additional supplies, reducing industrial demand through load shedding, appealing to households to cut consumption and, as a last resort, rationing domestic supply.
Solutions to the UK’s resilience gap range from doubling down on renewables to investing in nuclear power.
One of the most fiercely debated avenues is reopening the North Sea to further oil and gas development.
More domestic gas could mean fewer LNG deliveries during a global shortage, less exposure to international price spikes, and greater flexibility during a supply disruption.
However, DESNZ has argued that the fields are declining in production and would take decades to develop further. Department reports suggest that further extraction would make a marginal difference to overall future production and would not change Britain's status as a net importer.
Gas storage has been suggested as a potential way to increase Britain's energy security 
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Amid questions over the future of Britain’s energy regime, analysts have suggested strategic storage must increase to help weather imminent further market shocks.
Mr Berman argued that the UK’s relatively low storage capacity meant it was far more “exposed to price volatility” than other European nations.
“The EU’s storage is filled in anticipation of the winter, and that's not just a security of supply buffer; it's also a price buffer because what would generally happen is that prices in the summer go down, and you fill up your gas storage, and then they go up in the winter,” he explained.
UK gas storage is equivalent to around 12 days of demand, compared with 89 days in Germany, 103 in France and 123 in the Netherlands.
Energy giant Centrica, the owner of British Gas, believes a solution could be found in the UK’s huge but underused storage facility off the east Yorkshire coast, Rough.
Rough, a vast chamber found 9,000 feet beneath the North Sea seabed, could currently store between 54 and 58 billion cubic feet of gas — enough to heat millions of homes during winter months, Centrica says.
The site was hastily reopened in 2022 in response to the war in Ukraine but remains unoptimised, with very little being stored in the facility this year.
As such, Centrica has proposed a £2billion investment to expand the facility but needs government support to establish a long-term regulatory framework.
However, even this strategy faces an economic hurdle, with the traditional gap between cheaper summer gas and more expensive winter gas narrowing sharply.
A Department for Energy Security & Net Zero spokesman told GB News that the UK has a “diverse and resilient energy supply”.
“Breaking the link with fossil fuels, upgrading our network and transitioning to clean power is the only way to bring down bills for good,” they said.
