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For the third time in four years, Europe is waking up to discover that it has sleepwalked into yet another energy crisis." When Russia illegally invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, Europe was caught in an extremely compromised position, as it was dependent on Russian producers for 40 percent of its natural gas. When energy sanctions were slapped on the Kremlin, the impact on European energy markets was dire, with many families plunging into energy poverty. In the years since that crisis, European leaders have made efforts to diversify their energy…
Criminals are exploiting weak points across the West Texas oil production region, which accounts for 15% of the world's energy resources. This emerging wave of oil theft is burning a multi-billion-dollar hole in the budgets of oil and gas operators across the Permian Basin and is becoming a national security threat. Bloomberg reports that oil and gas producers are losing at least $1 billion, if not more, per year due to oilfield theft in what the outlet describes as something straight out of a "Mad Max" movie. At the center of the Permian…
The worst oil and gas supply shock in history has exposed the vulnerability of dependence on fossil fuel imports and is making renewables popular again. As governments scramble to contain the fallout from the energy shock, both in supply and prices, increased electrification in transportation and power generation is once again the talk of the town. As the war in the Middle East laid bare the shock of losing oil and gas supply, policymakers and analysts are once again considering the benefits of fossil fuel importers boosting the share of renewable…
The global oil market has been on a rollercoaster since late February, but the price reaction to the largest supply disruption in history has been relatively muted. The calm was not complacency; buffers were there to absorb the shock. But the system that held for four weeks is no longer the system we are operating in today. The oil market did not underreact to the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz; it absorbed it. For nearly four weeks, markets have shown remarkable resilience in the face of disruption, supported by a combination of pre-war surplus,…
Oil prices could hit a record $200 per barrel if the war in the Middle East drags on through the entire second quarter, analysts at Macquarie Group have warned. The odds of the Iran war dragging on until June were put at 40% by the analysts in a note carried by Bloomberg. But the scenario of the war ending by the end of March currently appears more plausible, with odds at 60%, according to Macquarie. “If the strait were to stay closed for an extended period, prices would need to move high enough to destroy an historically…
