Decreasing Demand

The peak demand for oil was experienced during the early 1970's, at which time the final oil refinery to be built in Pembrokeshire was nearing completion.

However, this peak was soon followed by the oil crisis in 1973 when the demand for oil products fell dramatically. The industry stabilised during the remainder of the decade until a further down-turn in demand was experienced following the Iranian revolution.

At the beginning of the 1980’s the demand for oil continued to decrease leading to Britain having an excess oil refining capacity. This led to the closure of Gulf’s petro-chemical complex in 1982, the Esso oil refinery in 1983 and the BP Terminal at Angle Bay in 1985.

The Pembroke Power station was closed in 1997 due to its poor productivity caused as the result of its aging structure. There were also several nuclear power stations in use and whilst these had lower outputs they had greater efficiency than the Counties only power station.