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For centuries man relied on animals to provide power to drive tools and machines. Water and wind were also used by man to power mills and later to produce electric.

The drilling of oil in the 19th Century greatly changed the way that electricity was produced and the methods of powering machines.

It was during the period immediately following the Second World War that oil became a widely used and demanded form of fuel. Several oil refineries were built in the UK during the 1940's, but it was not until the 1950's that the oil companies began to see the potential of the Milford Haven Waterway.

The Esso refinery at Herbranston was the first oil refinery to be built in Pembrokeshire. Its opening in 1960 was the start of the oil industry in the County. By 1973, there were four oil refineries and a power station located closed to the Milford Haven Waterway.

During the mid-1970's the oil industry experienced difficulties and this led to the closure of the Esso oil refinery in 1983 and the Gulf refinery shortly afterwards. The power station, located to the West of Pembroke, continued to operate until 1997.

The former sites of the Esso and Gulf oil refineries are currently being developed as Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) terminals. The plan is to bring LNG to the plants via large sea tankers, to store it in liquid form and then after regassifying it pump the gas into the National Transmission System (NTS). The NTS is a substantial high-pressure gas pipeline some 4,000 miles in length that runs the length and breadth of the UK.

There have been other proposals to develop offshore wind farms and to install tidal turbines in the waterway, but neither have been developed at present. The building of a Energy Technium in Pembroke Dock means that Pembrokeshire will be in the forefront on energy development in the UK.