British Royal Marines seized a giant Iranian oil tanker in Gibraltar on Thursday for trying to take oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions, a dramatic step that drew Tehran’s fury and could escalate its confrontation with the West.

UK-based research and development company Innovative Physics Ltd (IPL) and China Environmental Protection Company Ltd (CEPC) have signed an agreement on technologies and skills to further improve the safety of nuclear power plants in China and overseas.

Energy and Clean Growth Minister Chris Skidmore said: "Coal is fast becoming the fossil of our energy system and it will soon be confined to the history books. To ensure this happens as soon as possible, we have committed to phasing out coal entirely by 2025."

UK oil production rose by nearly 9% on the year in the first quarter of 2019 to 1.18 million b/d, continuing a half-decade revival and beating industry expectations, government statistics released Thursday showed.

ConocoPhillips's gas-focused North Sea assets pumped 72,000 b/d of oil equivalent last year, and the acquisition will help boost Chrysaor's total production this year to over 185,000 boe/d, Chrysaor said in a statement.

Renewable energy sources generated approximately 33 per cent of Great Britain’s electricity over the first quarter of 2019, according to new figures published by energy consultancy EnAppSys, with wind energy accounting for over 60% of renewable generation.

CT - Provisional figures published by the UK Government on Thursday show that renewable energy sources generated a record amount of electricity in 2018, increasing by 11.8% over 2017 levels, led by a record year for wind energy generation which provided 17.1% of the UK’s electricity.

WNN - The UK and the European Commission signed a contract extension today for the world’s largest fusion research facility, Joint European Torus (JET). The extension secures at least EUR100 million (USD112 million) in additional inward investment from the EU over the next two years and "brings reassurance" for the more than 500 staff at the site in Culham, near Oxford, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said.

Oil & Gas UK estimates exploration and production companies would have to spend about $265 billion between 2019-35 to realize industry’s expectations outlined in Vision 2035 on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).

British oil and gas production rose 4 percent to 1.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2018 compared with the previous year, according to the Oil and Gas Authority, an industry regulator.