Seattle Daily Star

  Consumers have developed tools to tackle an oil crisis since the 1970s, but nothing of the sort exists for gas There have been global oil supply crises — in 1973–74, 1978–80 and 1990, all triggered by events in the Middle East. There has never been a worldwide natural gas crisis. Now we are in the midst of one — not near the beginning of the end, but probably at the end of the beginning. It is bound to get much worse from here. There have, of course, been regional gas shocks before, usually because of weather or natural disasters such as Japan’s nuclear shutdown after the 2011 Fukushima accident (leading to a revolution in LNG trading), and some related to cut-offs for political reasons, for instance Russia -Ukraine in 2006 and 2009, and Egyptian exports to Jordan and Israel after the 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak. There could not have been a global gas crisis before because the market became globalised only in the last decade. For most of this time, gas prices ...

  Member countries aim to ‘radically’ reduce Russian oil and gas imports through various measures and policies The International Energy Agency said its members are ready to release more oil into the market “if needed” to tackle soaring prices in the wake of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine. Members including the US and its allies are discussing a further co-ordinated release of oil from storage to tackle rising prices, the IEA said in a press conference with US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm in Paris. IEA member countries committed to releasing 61.7 million barrels of oil reserves as of March 4, exceeding the 60 million barrels of oil that they had pledged to release from emergency stocks to bring stability to energy markets. The US will provide 30 million barrels followed by Japan with 7.5 million, South Korea with 4.4 million, Germany with 3.2 million and the UK with 2.2 million. “Our member countries and secretariat are closely monitoring the markets and in additi...