By JJB
The UK's energy market is dominated by the "six big" companies:
The UK's energy market is dominated by the "six big" companies:
... but in fact, four of these six are no longer in British ownership. These are their owner's origins, listed according to their market position:
1. EDF Energy
(owned by French EDF; former „British Energy“)
2. E.ON UK
(owned by German E.ON; former „Powergen“)
3. Npower
(owned by German RWE)
4. British Gas
(owned by British Centrica)
5. Scottish Power
(owned by Spanish Iberdrola)
6. Scottish and Southern Energy - SSE
Therefore, the situation has changed profoundly since the following chart was published in 2008 by the BBC: Since then, International Power has merged with GDF-Suez, British Energy with EDF, RWE has improved its position...
So, the famous British "energy independence" might just be a myth, and reality might be slightly more complexe. Yet, Britain is also present in other energy markets around the globe, as this chart from the Centrica homepage shows:
We might also have a look on the oil sector, rather than electricity. BP is a strong British company on the international scene (even though rumour has it that Dutch company Shell might want to take over its British competitor):
In addition, we should not forget that not every foreign investment equals a "sell-out", as seen in the first part of this small "Energy for the UK"-series : a Russian investment in the Hatfield colliery and clean-coal technology could have created many jobs for the local population...
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