If I recall the UK used to get about 3% of its gas from Russia and with the rest of the EU now scratching around for alternative suppliers plus the inability of other suppliers to increase production it has left an entire gap in the market.
Energy bills have gone up around the world, and in Europe specifically Germany they have turned their back on one of the greenest energy sources.
While I get there is issues regarding nuclear waste on the whole the nuclear power generation gives off 0 carbon emissions plus gives you a secure domestic supply.
Therefore if Germany had kept the reactors on and built more their reliance on Russian Gas and Oil wouldn't have been such a big issue.
I guess that's why the EU is stalling in the implementations of sanctions against Russia.
The UK on the other hand has to import oil and gas from overseas like the EU, and right now its mainly coming from the USA and Norway.
But other EU countries have also been drawing on these two countries creating a higher than usual demand.
Both Oil and Gas are polluters it seems that Germanys vision and the EU climate change goals are all but gone, you simply cannot achieve 0 carbon emissions from gas.
You also cant sustain your energy needs with solar, tidal and wind you have to have a base load to work from and the only way I can see that can be achieved is to have nuclear as your base provider.
Here in Manitoba its not so bad nearly all our electricity comes from Hydro Electric which is the base load, then we have peak demand plants run by coal and gas.
So someone will now say I have contradicted myself because I have just said you cannot achieve 0 carbon emissions from renewable sources.
Well Manitoba is twice the size of Germany by land mass yet has a population of 1.4 million with around 800,000 of that population living in Winnipeg and another 200,000+ living in major towns in the south and only a few major high energy using industries.
Now Germany has a population of 83.2 million to give you an idea that is 2.25 times the population of Canada (37.2 million) and has a lot of high energy using industries.
So why is this relevant? simply because each country has differing needs depending on Industry and population, Germany is a high energy user as is the UK and all of Europe.
Therefore with the move away from Russian supplied oil and gas this has put the demand for product elsewhere and as it was a fairly sudden change.
The producer doesn't have the ability to push a button and more comes out of the ground like many think it does in reality production has to be eased up gently.
Then you also have to think of the transportation network, while Europe is largely supplied by pipeline its not the case if that oil and gas is coming from
the USA for example.
The sudden demand for oil and gas will have had a major effect on the markets, with Russian product now not supplying the market there's a big hole and this is why we saw demand out weight supply.
That balance is now being readdressed as other countries now take up the slack to produce more.
The futures market quotes in light sweet crude for example look reasonable but only time will tell.
https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/ene...de.quotes.html
The UK and Europe are not the only ones this is affecting, the UK news would have you believe this is all due to Brexit and only affecting the UK, well that's not the case.
I spend a lot of time in the USA I have seen fuel prices triple in the last 6-9 months the highest I have seen for Gas / Petrol is $7.29 a US Gallon (3.79 Liters) even Texas had fuel prices in excess of $5 a Gallon !
So this is nothing to do with brexit or covid it is simply supply and demand, the demand is there but the supply is not and Europe is not alone either.
My bill this month was $348CAD last month it was $244CAD and a year ago it was sitting around $150CAD