Securing Britain’s energy today while enabling tomorrow’s industries
Tom Sawyer, CEO
| Port of Milford Haven
Milford Haven offers Britain a powerful opportunity to catalyse growth.
Britain’s economic resilience depends on its ability to produce, process and deliver the energy that powers its industries, homes and communities.
Yet geopolitical uncertainty and recent conflicts have exposed the risks of supply chain disruption.
Energy security is economic security, and resilience must sit alongside decarbonisation at the heart of our industrial strategy.
As the UK government pursues growth across the country and the Welsh government seeks to raise productivity, industrial sites such as those along the Milford Haven Waterway offer significant opportunities to strengthen Britain’s economic foundations.
Oil and gas remain integral to the economy, supplying fuels, industrial feedstocks and essential manufacturing inputs.
Refineries also produce essential chemicals used in aerospace, automotive manufacturing, electronics and medicine.
Yet North Sea production is declining, and domestic refining capacity continues to contract.
Following the closures of Grangemouth and Lindsey, the UK has just four operational refineries, including Valero in Wales, increasing reliance on imported fuels.
Losing domestic capacity risks weakening supply chains, reducing industrial capability and surrendering opportunities for skilled employment.
So, what does an industrial complex in Wales mean for people across Britain?
Milford Haven is the UK’s leading energy port, delivering around 20 per cent of the nation’s energy needs and handling around 80 per cent of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports. It supports 5,000 jobs across Wales and generates £1bn in economic value.
The Port is also home to one of the UK’s four remaining refineries and supports a gas-fired power station capable of supplying electricity to four million homes.
Fuel storage, processing, logistics and engineering underpin a nationally significant part of South Wales’ industrial economy, with average annual wages in these businesses exceeds £60,000.
These are precisely the skilled, productive jobs that a reindustrialisation strategy should protect and build upon.
They also sustain local suppliers, contractors and specialist services, while supporting apprenticeships and developing the technical skills needed for the future.
Turning ambition into growth requires investment, industrial capacity and well-paid employment.
That means sustaining existing operations while creating the conditions for new industries to flourish.
Recent developments illustrate both the challenges and the opportunities.
The announcement that Impala’s fuel import terminal and storage operations will close at the end of the year underlines that established industrial capability cannot be taken for granted.
Conversely, a Celtic Freeport-backed scheme to develop Criterion Quay offers an opportunity to strengthen Pembroke Dock’s role in delivering renewable energy infrastructure in the Celtic Sea.
Securing Britain’s energy today while enabling tomorrow’s industries requires a whole system approach.
Oil and gas, LNG, electricity, hydrogen, renewables, carbon capture and storage, and the infrastructure connecting them must be considered together. Energy infrastructure is national security infrastructure.
The Milford Haven Waterway’s established infrastructure and engineering expertise provide a platform for lower-carbon technologies.
With the right investment, supportive policy frameworks and improved grid connectivity, this expertise can unlock substantial private investment, supporting a cleaner energy system without undermining the infrastructure on which the economy currently relies.
If Britain becomes increasingly dependent on overseas suppliers for essential fuels, chemicals and industrial materials, its exposure to international disruption grows.
Government must, therefore, consider whether the cumulative burden of regulation is undermining British industry, particularly when domestic producers compete against imports made under different conditions.
Decarbonisation must go hand-in-hand with industrial competitiveness, rather than inadvertently accelerating the loss of domestic production.
If we want to build tomorrow’s industries, we must preserve and strengthen the current and future strategic capabilities that will help us get there.
