Month: January 2022

The US is holding discussions with Qatar and other gas exporters amid fears that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could spark a decline in supply. The talks with the Gulf state and some EU nations have focused on new ways to secure alternative seaborne liquefied natural gas cargoes. The discussions have become more intense in the last week as security talks between senior American and Russian ministers made little progress. As Europe is facing record energy prices, concerns are especially high regarding a possible dip in gas supplies. “We’re looking…

Russia, the world’s third-largest oil producer, has long been an unknown when it comes to the OPEC+ production agreement which caps the petroleum output of participants to support higher prices. It was Moscow’s spat with Saudi Arabia over production quotas in early 2020 which, combined with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, caused crude oil prices to plunge into negative territory for the first time ever. The North American benchmark West Texas Intermediate plunged to minus $37.63 per barrel before recovering, while Brent did not enter negative territory the international benchmark, plunged to an…

Thanks to the United States shale revolution of the last decade or so, natural gas has become an increasingly cheap and abundant source of power in global energy markets. Many world leaders and industry heads have also touted the plentiful fuel source as a cost-effective stepping stone away from more emissions-intensive fossil fuels such as coal and gas along the road to decarbonization. That view, however, has sparked much debate among policy-makers, shale execs, and environmentalists as the need to combat climate change grows more urgent. Green energy plans are being ironed…