News Energy
Is Joe Biden pushing up the price of oil?
There were no major fluctuations in the energy market last week. There are several indicators that this could change in the near future, especially for oil. The gas price, on the other hand, seems to be entering calmer waters after the high demand from Asia.
Crude oil prices will remain stable around $55 a barrel this week. The price of agricultural diesel also remains stable this week. Today (Friday 29 January) diesel costs €4.000 per 96,61 liters when purchasing at least 100 liters.
Analysts expect the oil price to rise in the near future. Signals of decreased demand due to the ongoing corona pandemic are being drowned out by fears of production cuts. OPEC members seem to be sticking to production restrictions well. Oil production in the Middle East is expected to drop to its lowest level since 2015 in the coming weeks. In Libya, oil exports are being blocked by workers at production facilities. They demand that their salaries be paid first.
US an uncertain factor
Not only the Middle East supports the oil price. Oil traders hope that the recently inaugurated US President Joe Biden will quickly get his plans for the corona recovery fund through Congress. This has a positive impact on the economy and stimulates the demand for fuel. In addition, the IMF recently revised its forecasted oil demand growth in 2021 upwards. This year, a growth of 5,5% is expected compared to 2020. In the previous forecast, this was still 5,2%.
Self-generated power
By linking the consumption of electricity and any energy storage present to the production of a windmill or solar panels, the generated energy can be used more efficiently. It is especially important for farmers who generate (much) more electricity than they use to make optimum use of the peaks in demand. They can only make limited use of the netting arrangement.
Two companies are entering into a partnership in this area. It concerns Axpo Solutions and Energy Pool. They announced their collaboration on Thursday 28 January. Axpo is Switzerland's largest producer of renewable energy. In addition, the company is internationally active in the trade and marketing of wind and solar energy. Energy Pool is a smart energy manager that makes software for optimizing, flexibilizing and storing energy.
Gas demand for normal
The high demand for LNG at the beginning of January from Asia is not an indicator that global gas demand will increase in 2021. IEA expects demand to recover in 2021 and grow slightly after the slowdown in 2020 due to the coronavirus. The recent surge in demand and price has been caused by extreme cold in parts of Asia. The extent to which the demand for gas increases depends on the pace at which the global economy recovers.
Jurphaas Lugtenburg
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