Economics of Petroleum Market

De: Roshdy Ebrahim Ph.D

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Natural gas is currently the number three fossil fuel in terms of share of the global primary energy mix and for years the world has debated the potential for natural gas to play a critical part in building a more resilient and sustainable energy future. While the demand outlook is currently uncertain, advances in supply side technologies for unconventional resource development, led by advances in US shale gas operations, have changed the supply landscape and created new prospects for affordable and secure supplies of natural gas. Continued demand for oil- and gas-based energy services throughout the twenty first century is expected to induce technological change that could lower future production cost levels. On the other hand, environmental considerations could adversely affect oil and gas production costs, especially when unconventional resources are considered. Production of these resources typically has larger environmental impacts, including increased greenhouse gases emitted during the extraction and upgrading processes. Emissions penalties could change the shapes of the supply curves, as unconventional oil and gas would become relatively more expensive. The pricing regimes of energy commodities have undergone several evolutions since oil and natural gas began being traded on a global scale. The mechanisms for setting prices are meant to reflect the value of those commodities based on supply and demand, and the overall value of that energy trade. In reality, while the trading prices reported by futures exchanges do reflect what the market believes those commodities are worth at a particular time, they do not accurately show the price of oil and gas being consumed throughout the world since there are numerous energy deals that are made outside of the scope of commodities exchanges, making it impossible to gage the value of the trade looking strictly at futures prices. Th e anomalies between exchange prices and prices charged domestically by energy producers or those charged by exporters vary because so many countries that are energy exporters have nationalized energy industries which allow the governments of those states to intervene in energy deals and often sell that energy at prices that are not connected to the trading price at exchanges. Th us, oil and natural gas are somewhat unique among the many commodities that are traded on exchanges with private companies often being the producers in countries with nationalized energy sectors, making it impossible to completely separate business from politics in oil and gas pricing.