Companies all over the United Kingdom use vast amounts of energy and cannot afford to lose access to it. Even a minor disruption in energy supply can cost a business large amounts of money, with its prospects for the future frequently being dimmed in the process.

Businesses are understandably concerned for quite a few reasons about how the UK’s impending exit from the European Union will impact their operations and existing arrangements. The state of business energy in the UK will undoubtedly be altered by Brexit, and almost certainly for the worse.

The UK is More Dependent on Foreign Energy Suppliers Than Ever Before

The UK’s proximity to the North Sea has made it a global leader in the field of petroleum extraction for many decades. While that region remains a major source of oil, shifting emphases and patterns of consumption have made it less important than it once was to the British commercial energy market.

In fact, the UK now depends quite heavily on natural gas obtained from countries that were formerly not considered significant suppliers of energy-producing commodities. A number of these are members of the European Union, meaning that associated trading relationships will be upset when the UK gives up its membership in that organization.

British reliance on other nations for domestic energy production goes quite a bit deeper than that, too. In some cases, plants in the UK are heavily dependent on foreign suppliers for basics like replacement parts and maintenance supplies.

Just about every such relationship with a European partner will need to be rethought, at the very least, in order to compensate for Brexit. Businesses could easily find themselves facing real energy-related difficulties if they have not looked into how their own arrangements will be affected.

Disruption is Inevitable, but Long-Term Stability is Likely

As a result, it seems almost certain that Brexit will provoke plenty of energy-oriented troubles for companies all around the UK. At the same time, many experts seem hopeful that effective solutions will be developed in the short term and supplemented with more carefully considered ones when the situation allows. In the best of possible cases, Brexit-related energy troubles will be overcome quickly and permanently.