Előző írásunkban bemutattuk, hogy az LNG piacon várhatóan túlkínálat alakul ki, és az új termelőknek meg kell találniuk a korábban biztos felvevőpiacnak tekintett ázsiai országok alternatíváját. Hosszabb távon arra számítunk, hogy piacok nyílnak majd meg, és a…

The IEA’s World Energy Outlook in 6 charts. Here is our pick of top charts from the IEA’s latest annual World Energy Outlook (WEO), as promised in our earlier post. These are about the big trends that we (mostly) agree with. In yet another follow-up post we will also write about that the…

It is a Saturday night in 2023. Despite the inconvenient hour, the Tel Aviv-Shiraz EasyJet flight is full of expectant Israeli and American backpackers, Iranian traders and the odd oilworker expat family based in Iran returning from a long weekend of sightseeing… Sounds completely unrealistic?…

What do dead cows, Native American warriors and Snow White have in common? At first glance, not much. Yet these are just some of the many random names given to oil and gas fields. While most exploration and production (upstream) blocks are named after their geographic location, or just assigned a…

The world is either going to be constrained by the high price of energy, cook itself or it will use a lot of gas, barring a revolution in renewables. In our earlier post we showed some enduring energy trends. In this one we take a look at what happens if these trends broadly continue. This is…

A bit more than 4 barrels of oil. Or about 700 liters. That is how much oil the average person uses each year globally. And it has been the same for the past 30 years. BP recently published its annual data deluge regarding energy markets. We calculated some interesting ratios and present them in…

The US chemical industry would rather export the natural gas in the form of plastics, the greens would not export it at all, and the foreign policy lobby regards gas exports as a tactical weapon against the Russians. The jury on exports is still out, literally. By András Bácsi-Nagy. András has…

This is not as crazy as it sounds. Actually the technology already does exist.  In our earlier post we argued that we do not have much time in terms of climate change – it is very likely that the carbon budget will be exceeded in 20 years or less, and that the temperature increase will…

The EU is getting worried about the high energy prices paid by European companies. Well, maybe they should have thought of that earlier. Another EU summit was held last week, where energy issues were discussed (among other topics). However, the issue of tax avoidance and tax fraud seems to have…

We could well see oil prices spike to new records. But the average price in the next decade is likely to be lower than in recent years. In our previous piece we have shown that Saudi Arabia may not be able to cut production to stabilize oil prices much longer, if needed. In this post we are going…

Bluff, empire-building or no better project? Will South Stream “West” be built, and will Gazprom shoot itself in the foot? Or will the current plans be scrapped? We’re rooting for the former… In our previous post on the Nabucco pipeline, we explored the factors (basically everything)…

Gazprom faces money troubles – it simply has too much. Guest post by András György Deák, Associate Fellow at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs. While some changes are apparent even from a European perspective, many fundamental shifts are much less publicized. Despite the woes…

‘The United States is on the path to a cleaner and more secure energy future’. But the President does not have much to do with that. President Obama has just unveiled a “blueprint for a clean and secure energy future” for the US. The press reports noted that the controversial Keystone XL…

Did Bobby Ewing’s son hit the nail on the head? Natural gas could become even more abundant and cheap. Japan just announced that it managed to extract natural gas from methane hydrates. If you watch the new “Dallas” series remake, you already know what this is - the seemingly sci-fi idea…

A pipeline project is made of steel and political stability along its route. Both of these things got scarcer and more expensive in the past 10 years, while the alternatives became more abundant. Nabucco seemed to be a good idea 10 years ago. But then the world changed. The Nabucco gas pipeline…

Due to the unconventional oil and (shale) gas boom in the US, gas flaring in North Dakota and Texas is visible from outer space. In fact, the amount of gas flared would be enough to simultaneously power the cities of Chicago and Washington… Although environmentalists’ concerns are growing…

For the first time in history, Gazprom is transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Japan via the Arctic, and even endeavored to make the trip in November. This route is three weeks shorter than the currently used roundabout to the south, and there are no fees to be paid at the Suez Canal. All…

Finally the EU has woken up to something that has long been obvious. Another sign that the (market) power of Gazprom is waning.  By István Zsoldos and Péter Simon Vargha The European Commission has just launched a formal investigation into whether Gazprom breached antitrust rules in its…

We always suspected that Russia was taking unconventional gas more seriously than it said it did. Now the government, even if at low level, is talking about the risks to Gazprom. In this piece we are looking at the potential political consequences of unconventional gas.  The relative political…

Buy ambitious experts from majors, distressed assets from small companies and have lots of luck. This was the recipe of COVE Energy, a junior that started exploring oil and gas only three years ago. It increased its market capitalization over 700-fold and recently was a subject of a bidding war. The…

Unconventional gas impacts, emissions edition, in a single shocking graph. US energy related CO2-emissions are back to 1990 levels in 2012, thanks mainly to (unconventional) gas substituting for coal. The data are from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The chart…

Gas is more abundant and cheaper than oil, and possibly even than coal. It will spread in heating and electricity production. Whether the same happens in transportation is more questionable – electricity may push out oil first. But if not, we may have a “methane economy” in a few decades.…

Currently natural gas in the US is cheaper than the subsidized domestic gas price level in Russia. Even if this is unlikely to last, gas will be cheap, significantly cheaper than oil, eventually everywhere. This is going to be a truly enermous global supply shock.  But the US will enjoy a cost…