The Sunday Mail
Crude oil prices rocketed also in 2021, gaining more than 50 percent as demand recovered and oil producing nations led by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Russia modestly boosted supplies.
It came after OPEC+ drastically slashed output in 2020 as the pandemic began to unfold, and virus-related restrictions caused demand and prices to crash.
Although crude prices have shot back up, trading above US$75 per barrel heading into the new year, the jump “seems almost moderate by comparison” with gas, noted Lambrecht.
US oil benchmark contract, West Texas Intermediate, reached a seven-year peak at US$85 per barrel in October, before easing.
Chain reaction
Soaring gas and oil prices have pushed up the cost of coal, one of the most polluting fossil fuels, at a time when countries are under pressure to increasingly switch to cleaner energy sources.
A tonne of coal for delivery to the ports of Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp struck US$280 at the start of October, nearly three times the price that had lasted for around a decade. This helped to push up European carbon prices, which reached above US$100 per tonne for the first time in December, around three times the level at the start of the year.
Carbon trading, while seen as a key way to prevent climate change, involves companies buying the right to pollute from others who have a lower carbon footprint.
Electricity prices have also surged.
Electricity for delivery in France this year rose above US$511 per megawatt hour in December, four times more than in early September.
The surge in energy prices is fuelling high inflation worries as soaring costs badly affect businesses and consumers globally. — AFP.
