Downstream oil supply resilience

Overview

BEIS is consulting on possible new measures which aim to maintain the security of fuel supply to consumers.  The proposed measures would apply to companies operating in the downstream oil sector and form part of a wider package of proposed reforms to Government’s approach to the protection of critical infrastructure.

These proposals are consistent with the Department’s objective of ensuring that the UK has secure and reliable energy supplies and our ongoing work with the sector on fuel supply resilience.

This consultation seeks views on proposals to improve fuel supply resilience in the following areas: 

• Monitor: to enable BEIS to collect information from the downstream oil sector to better understand the impact of potential disruptive events, and to use the information to support industry in improving fuel resilience.
• Protect: to align this sector with protections that apply in other critical service sectors, by enabling Government to ensure that new owners of critical fuel infrastructure are financially sound and operationally capable; and to take a Government spending power to enable Government to support supply resilience improvements and schemes.
• Insure: to enable industry to create and operate collective, sector-wide industry-led schemes to maintain fuel supply in case normal supply arrangements are seriously disrupted; and a power to direct individual companies to participate in such schemes and take other action that may be necessary to ensure resilience.