BP: Global Gas Demand Rise Offset by EU Dips, Renewables
Chief executive of BP Bob Dudley has said that while 2011 saw global gas demand grow by 2.2 per cent, this was offset by a drop in European gas demand as well as the increasing availability of renewables.
Other factors which offset the growing gas demand, which has largely been seen in the US, were high prices, weakened economies and warmer weather.
Launching the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2012 yesterday, Mr. Dudley said that increased innovation in gas had helped to bring prices in the US for gas to record level lows against oil.
"The shale gas revolution has meant that natural gas prices went down instead of up and reached record discounts to oil."
Other fuels helping to drive down price as well as increasing innovation were deepwater oil and gas, biofuels and heavy oil.
However, the same reduction of prices was not seen across the markets, the report itself said, with both European and Asian prices following the opposite trajectory and increasing.
"Natural gas prices in Europe and Asia–including spot markets and those indexed to oil–increased broadly in line with oil prices, although movements within the year varied widely," the report said.
There was a danger than gas and oil prices could severely affect already weak economies said, with energy dictating the economy rather than the other way round.
"With so many economies dependent on imported oil and gas, the risk of high prices is that, rather than economic factors driving energy prices, energy prices could drive economies downward."
The chief executive said the diversity of the market and an increasingly varied energy mix had helped to alleviate some energy shortages following the crisis in Fukishima and the Arab Spring protests.
In Europe, Mr. Dudley said BP would continue to seek to improve energy security in the gas market, with the opening of the Southern Gas Corridor through the Caspian.
"The key to energy security is diversity of supply and policies that encourage new supplies and infrastructure," he said. "For example, it is good to see progress being made in bringing gas from the Caspian to Europe."