The levelised costs of electricity (LCOE) for utility solar and onshore wind in Asia Pacific were up 16% and 12% respectively since 2020, as equipment, construction costs and interest rates rose in the region. However, China was insulated from the trend.
Prime Minister Theresa May claims she is "fed up" with rip off energy prices "like millions of working families".
Asda has cut the price of diesel to 97.7 pence per litre (ppl) amid tumbling oil prices. The supermarket said the 2ppl reduction has taken diesel to its lowest price in over six years.
Energy analysts Douglas Westwood have forecast the market for the operation of work-class ROVs to total more than $14billion from now until 2019. The findings represent a 19% increase on the previous five-year period. However the findings revealed some difficult conditions in the near-term market with weaker dayrates and lower levels of utilisation.
The cost of filling up a car with petrol is £2 less than a month ago, according to new figures. A six-year low in the price of oil helped bring the average cost of petrol down by 4p a litre to £1.12 in the last week of August, RAC Fuel Watch said.
British Gas said operating profits have risen by 44% as more energy was used by consumers due to colder weather conditions. The company, owned by Centrica, said consumption was up by 11% compared to a “warm first half” of 2014. The first six months of the year have seen profits surge to £528million up from £265million a year earlier.
Petrol prices have pushed up a further 3p a litre in the last month, according to the AA. The rise means the cost of petrol at the pumps has increased more than 10p a litre since February. The average price has risen from 113.29p in mid-April to 116.42p now, while diesel has gone up from 118.83p to 120.70p.
Energy consultancy Douglas Westwood said deepwater expenditure will increase by 69% between now and 2019. The figure comes despite a number of companies suspending high-cost projects in the wake of the low oil prices. The company estimated the total cost could be as high as $210billion in its report, ‘World Deepwater Market Forecast 2015-2019’. The report author Mark Adeosun said development of deepwater reserves has become increasingly vital, particularly to the world’s oil majors.
Recent plummeting oil prices have demonstrated the volatility of the industry and the need for governments to plan budgets on the basis of potentially “enormous forecast errors”, the chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has told MSPs. The sector was hit after the price of Brent crude oil dropped to below 50 US dollars (£33) a barrel, having been at about 110 US dollars (£74) between 2010 until midway through last year. Robert Chote told Holyrood’s Finance Committee that such changes demonstrate the high degree of difficulty economists face when trying to forecast receipts. The OBR, set up to provide independent analysis to the UK Government, has downgraded its projections for oil receipts in 2016-17 from £2.4 billion in December to £600 million, and it is forecasting less than £1 billion each year until 2019/20.
The energy market regulator, Ofgem, has been sharply criticised by MPs for failing to ensure consumers are getting the best value for money. The Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee said new price caps intended to curb the costs of distributing and transmitting gas and electricity were too generous while performance targets were too low. Committee chairman Tim Yeo said a warning by Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan that it could be eight years before it was clear whether the new system was delivering value for money was too long for consumers to wait. The so-called “network costs” currently account for around 23% of a dual fuel (gas and electricity) bill.
Companies which own petrol stations should be hit with a windfall tax unless they pass on deep drops in oil prices to British drivers through cheaper fuel, a Tory MP has said. Nigel Evans said fuel industry firms not lowering their prices to £1 a litre should be shamed by MPs and then hit with a tax on their profits as the cost of crude oil tumbles. Mr Evans’ call comes after Sainsbury’s boss Mike Coupe predicted fuel prices would fall below £1 a litre as Brent crude was being traded at below 50 US dollars a barrel for the first time since 2009.
As we ring in the New Year, let's take stock of where we are at with the oil markets. 2014 proved to be a momentous one for the oil markets, having seen prices cut in half in just six months. The big question is what oil prices will do in 2015. Oil prices are unsustainably low right now – many high-cost oil producers and oil-producing regions are currently operating in the red.
The plummeting price of oil means no more trout ice cream. Coromoto, a parlor in Merida, Venezuela, famous for its 900 flavors, closed during its busiest season in November because of a milk shortage caused by the country’s 64% inflation rate, the world’s fastest. That’s the plight of an oil-producing nation. At the same time, consuming countries like the US are taking advantage.
The four major supermarkets have provided some New Year cheer for motorists by cutting their fuel prices. Asda, Morrisons, Sainsb ury’s and Tesco are all knocking 2p a litre off their petrol and diesel, with the reductions taking effect from tomorrow. The Asda cuts will mean its customers will pay no more than 107.7p a litre for petrol, with diesel at 114.7p a litre.
Having reached 2014 highs in June, crude oil prices started to free fall and in the search for reasons some people have pointed towards the International Energy Agency's (IEA) changing demand and supply expectations. Since June, when its 2014 global oil demand growth forecast hit a peak of 1.4million barrels per day (bpd), IEA’s projections have fallen by half. By contrast, supply expectations have been much more stable – since June, the IEA's forecasts of non-Opec (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil supply growth have expanded by a modest 300,000bpd and the IEA's non-Opec supply forecast is currently only 100,000bpd above the level at which it started 2014.
A summit which aims to bring together governments, trade unions and industry bodies to save jobs in Scotland’s oil capital has been announced. Jenny Laing, leader of Aberdeen City Council, has called on the Scottish and UK Governments to attend the summit on the North Sea oil industry which is struggling under plummeting oil prices. Labour has pledged to send its leader Jim Murphy and has urged First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Prime Minister David Cameron to attend.
The UK’s oil industry is “close to collapse” but the falling oil price could have a net benefit to the UK economy, according to experts. Robin Allan, chairman of the independent explorers’ association Brindex, said it is “almost impossible to make money” with the oil price below 60 US dollars (£38) a barrel and there will be no new investments. But accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said the falling oil price “should be a net benefit to our economy as a whole, even if there is some losers in the UK oil and gas sector and in particular places like Aberdeen”.
Motorists have received an early Christmas present in the form of yet more fuel cuts by supermarkets. Asda, Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s all announced they were reducing the price of their petrol by 2p a litre and also knocking 1p a litre off their diesel. The Tesco cut takes effect from lunchtime today, while the other three big supermarkets will introduce the lower prices from tomorrow.
BP shares were down 2% as investors reacted to the company's failure to win a US Supreme Court battle over oil spill compensation claims. The price of Brent crude fell to $66 a barrel due to oversupply fears.
The plunging oil price is giving an unexpected lift to Europe’s crisis-battered southern periphery as decreasing fuel costs help spur demand. Spain, Europe’s fourth-largest economy, could add as much as 1 percent to annual growth with oil prices between $80-90 a barrel, the government said. Italy, which is in its fourth year of recession, stands to boost GDP 0.3% points with a sustained $10 oil price drop, according to BNP Paribas SA. “There’s no doubt lower oil prices will act as a stimulus to growth in the region,” Frederik Ducrozet, a Paris-based economist at Credit Agricole, said. “Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy would be clear beneficiaries.”
A way of manufacturing solar cells much more cheaply than at present has apparently been devised in Norway.
Industry experts believe standardisation to stop costs creeping up in deepwater activities. A panel at the Deep Offshore Technology International 2014 (DOT) assessed the ways costs could be reduced within deepwater activity, with the recent decrease in oil prices, coupled with increasing cost.