During the pandemic, the World began to gradually try transit to renewable and clean energy.
The demand for oil and fossil fuels crashed drastically.
It was so bad that the price of oil futures crashed to negative values.
Oil producers were paying people to take Oil off their hands because of lack of storage space.
OPEC and major oil producers including Russia decided to cut production to 10 million bpd to control the price.
This was considered the largest voluntary oil agreement in history.
Now natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuels. It is said to produce 50% less emissions than oil.
Natural gas also suffered similar fate as oil during the pandemic. Low prices due to low demand.
But towards the beginning of winter last year, countries returned to natural gas for heating.
This shows a major drawback of renewable energy. It is literally useless during the winter.
Rivers are frozen, no wind, no sun….
In 2021, the demand increased further due to, again, failure of renewable energy. Latin America suffered a drought so no hydro energy.
he best alternative — natural gas.
China and fellow Asian countries anticipating a natural gas shortage stored up on Liquefied Natural Gas(LNG). They did this for the winter.
LNG is frozen gas.
Like I said, natural gas suffered low demand during the pandemic so producers reduced supply.
In 2021, there was an increase in demand with limited supply. You see where this is going.
Low supply. Hoarding of gas and of course, Putin.
Russia is largest producer of natural gas in western Europe. They have a new gas pipeline called Nord Stream II that is ready to launch.
Of course, these countries don’t want an overdependence on Russia for their energy.
Funny how, Nigeria could have been a solution if not for inefficiency. We have the 9th largest natural gas reserves in world (1st in Africa)
But, no gas pipeline to supply Europe.
So Russia doesn’t want to increase supply because they want their new pipeline to become functional.
So everybody is looking for natural gas bayi.
Incase you haven’t gotten it by now, this is why cooking gas price keeps going up.
Over 100% increase in few months.
Unfortunately, it might continue to rise with this ongoing crisis.
The same issue with Nigeria. Large natural gas reserves yet we import 70% of our natural gas. 30% from within
People are already returning to firewood.
I probably won’t be surprised if electricity charges goes up.
We generate over 50% of our electricity from natural gas.
Countries, in desperate need for electricity, have returned to coal mining to generate electricity.
Coal produces a lot of emissions.
They really have no choice because of the gas shortage.
China and India refused to give up coal at the ongoing COP26.
China didn’t even send a representative to the conference
Obviously, Russia doesn’t attend such
On COP26, some people like Greta Thunberg see the conference as a joke.
True, but solving climate change is not easy as most people think it is.
I will talk about that later.
The whole net-zero 2050 goal is beginning to look “unpossible”.
Countries are currently faced with a dilemma: emit and survive now, don’t emit and die now
Which would you pick?
Winter is coming (not GOT)
Renewables disappear.
If people don’t keep warm, they will literally die.
Coal, oil and natural gas is the only solution — for now.
There is currently no viable replacement for these energy sources.
Pending we find one, one way or the other humanity may be facing it’s doom.
Just kidding
I believe we will figure it out. We have a knack for solving complex problems.
You can see why climate change is really hard to solve.
In fact, that 2050 target is unfair for Africa.
We contribute less than 5% of global emissions, we no get funds and we are expected to transit at the same pace as developed countries.
It is unpossible na
There you have it.
Why cooking gas price is skyrocketing.
If you are interested in learning more about the climate change conundrum,
Watch these YouTube videos
1. Kurzgesagt — https://youtu.be/yiw6_JakZFc
2. Vox +Netflix — https://youtu.be/pafA-RU3q7U
