Brexit will worsen UK's natural gas problem

London

RELYING on natural gas to fuel Europe's second largest economy was never going to be easy for the UK, even before Brexit. Britain's once vast North Sea gas fields are fading, and even after a decade of trying, the island nation hasn't replicated the fracking boom that turned the US into the world's largest producer.

Gas imports have jumped 87 per cent in the past decade. That's left the country at the mercy of foreign suppliers just as the UK's planned exit from the European Union signals trade rules for the fuel probably will have to be rewritten.

Already, the UK's US$445 billion manufacturin…