Dow Jones: The U.K. government Thursday outlined plans to bolster the country's vital oil and gas sector, as official statistics showed that net energy imports rose last year to their highest levels since 1976, due to a sharp fall in domestic production.
Output, which fell last year because of shutdowns at several key North Sea oil and gas fields, has been on a downward slope for over a decade due to natural decline rates at mature fields and a changing tax regime. Concerns over the high costs of decommissioning...