The United Kingdom’s reliance on foreign gas is overwhelmingly met by Norway, not the United States, and certainly not by the state of Montana — despite claims to the contrary by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage. Provisional data for 2025 from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero shows that the UK imported 463,692 gigawatt hours (GWh) of gas in total. Of that, 320,249 GWh came from Norway, making it the largest foreign supplier by a wide margin. The United States was the third-largest source overall, supplying 104,360 GWh — all of it in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) transported by ship. Britain’s own domestic production accounted for 332,444 GWh.
How the UK gets its gas
Norway’s dominance of UK gas imports is structural. In 2025 it supplied approximately 69.5% of all imported gas, equivalent to 47.1% of total UK consumption. Much of this is delivered through subsea pipelines, reflecting decades of shared North Sea infrastructure. The UK’s own production, though declining to its lowest level since 1973 in 2024, still contributed 30.3% of total consumption in 2025 (207.2 terawatt hours). The United States provided 15.3% of total consumption. Smaller volumes came from other suppliers: Algeria and Qatar each provided 1.2% of UK imports, while Trinidad and Tobago and Belgium each accounted for 0.6%. Overall, UK gas imports fell by 8.4% in 2024 compared with 2023, driven largely by a reduction in LNG shipments, while pipeline imports, primarily from Norway, increased. The UK’s limited gas storage capacity — estimated at 3.1 billion cubic metres, enough for only 10 to 16 days of winter demand — adds to its vulnerability to supply shocks.
Farage’s claim examined
Mr Farage told BBC Breakfast on Wednesday that “most of our gas now comes from Montana in the (US) Midwest”. He made a similar assertion earlier in April, saying: “Most of the gas we currently import comes from Montana.” Official data shows this is not the case. Montana produced approximately 40.0 billion cubic feet of dry gas in 2024, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Against total US production of 37.7 trillion cubic feet, that is roughly 0.1%. Moreover, Montana’s natural gas production has been in decline since it peaked in 2006, and the state consumes about twice as much gas as it produces. A 2023 report from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality noted that while Montana currently consumes more natural gas than it produces, a “significant portion” of its output is still exported — but the data shows where that goes. US Census Bureau figures for 2025 record that Montana exported $525,083 worth of natural gas, all of it to Canada. None was recorded as going to the United Kingdom.
Even the geography is incorrect. The US Census Bureau defines the Midwest as a region of 12 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Montana is not among them; it is generally considered part of the Western United States.
The reality of US gas exports to the UK
The United States is the UK’s largest supplier of LNG, but the gas that reaches Britain does not originate in Montana. In 2025, the US exported $2.8 billion worth of natural gas to the UK. According to the US Census Bureau, this gas was shipped from four states: Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland and Texas. These are the states from which the gas was exported, not necessarily where it was produced. Maryland and Georgia, for example, are major LNG export hubs but produce little to no natural gas themselves. The Census Bureau data does not trace the gas back to its original wellhead, making it impossible to attribute any UK-bound shipments to Montana. By contrast, Montana’s total exports to the UK in 2024 were valued at $55.6 million, making Britain its 10th-largest export market. A 2021 report from the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Trade, covering 2019, listed Montana’s main exports to the UK as electrical equipment, basic chemicals, navigational and measurement instruments, aerospace products and parts, and miscellaneous general purpose machinery. Natural gas was not mentioned. The report noted that the UK was Montana’s sixth-largest export market in 2019, with goods valued at $39 million.
The discrepancy between Mr Farage’s claim and the actual data is stark. The US as a whole is only the second-largest foreign supplier to the UK — and a distant one at that. Its contribution comes almost exclusively from LNG terminals in coastal states far from Montana, and even those states are not necessarily the source of the gas they export. Montana’s own production is negligible on a national scale, and none of it reaches the UK. Furthermore, Montana is not part of the US Midwest, a region that itself — even if interpreted loosely — does not supply “most” of Britain’s gas. The UK’s primary gas lifeline remains Norway, followed by its own declining domestic fields.
