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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,…
The United States energy grid is in an extremely vulnerable position. Aging and underfunded, the grid is already being stressed to its limits by skyrocketing energy demand on the part of data centers as well as increasingly complicated energy flows introduced by solar and wind power. Building and maintaining a resilient energy grid will require a huge investment into expanding, reinforcing, and updating the grid – but in the meantime, all that expansion leaves the United States extremely vulnerable to cyberattack, according to security experts.…
The war in the Middle East and the halt of about 20% of global LNG trade flows are strengthening the case for increased LNG exports out of Western Canada. The political stability and the proximity to Asian markets make Canada’s Pacific Coast the perfect source of additional LNG supply to ease the strain on gas markets, which suddenly flipped from an expected glut for the rest of the decade to a major supply shortage that would take years to overcome. Canada would have been ideally positioned to fill in the gap. If only it had more than one…
Oil prices fell sharply in early asian trade on Wednesday, with both major benchmarks dropping more than 5% as traders reacted to signs of potential de-escalation in the Middle East conflict as well as a crude inventory build in the U.S. At the time of writing, WTI crude was trading at $87.51, down 5.24%, while Brent crude had fallen below the psychologically important $100 to $98.03, down 6.08%. The selloff follows a volatile 48 hours in oil markets, where prices had surged following President Trump's threat to blow up Iranian power plants and…
