With 40% of Britain's power already coming from gas plants, that is causing worries about over-reliance on a single fuel, particularly since dwindling North Sea stocks will force Britain to import more gas from overseas.
In 1975, Queen Elizabeth opened an underwater pipeline to bring the first of Britain's North Sea oil ashore.
And in Britain, plentiful North Sea gas propelled a shift from coal.
It's commonplace to say Britain has squandered North Sea oil, while Norway has built up a colossal fund from 30 years of revenues.
Historically, the North Sea's bounty has left Britain with little need to store gas, since shortages could be dealt with by simply pumping faster.
"Britain's North Sea gas supplies are running out and British Gas has to pay the going rate for gas in a competitive global marketplace, " said Mr Bentley.
Technological breakthroughs such as multi-lateral drilling helped defy predictions of decline in Britain's North Sea that have been made since the 1980s: the region is only now peaking.
Given the waning in the North Sea fields, it is to be expected that Britain will look elsewhere for oil, including the region around Rockall, where there are sovereign rights.
Britain recently raised taxes on production from the North Sea.
There is more hope for offshore wind, which is technically trickier, since North Sea oil has left a legacy of marine-engineering expertise in Britain.
Britain also feels the effects of earthquakes in the North Sea.
Britain and Norway have successfully pumped oil from the turbulent North Sea for decades.
The news, however, suggests that Britain's Energy and Climate Change Committee will question Hayward about BP's ability to respond to an oil spill or other incident in the North Sea, as part of a government inquiry into the safety of deep water drilling in Britain.
In the mid-sixties, when the BBC was still monopolizing radio in Great Britain, a rogue operator, broadcasting from a ship anchored in the North Sea, plays rock to a country that could only hear the Beatles and the Stones live or by going to a record store.
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