China’s energy crisis deepened on Friday with coal prices hitting a record high as cold weather sweeps in and soaring gas prices prompting major energy companies to seek long-term deals with U.S. suppliers, sources told Reuters.
Energy security has shot to the top of government agendas in Asia and Europe as shortages of coal and rocketing gas prices have triggered power outages and choked up factories supplying big name brands such as Apple just as the global economy reawakens from coronavirus restrictions.
To shield consumers from soaring prices as winter approaches, European Union leaders look set to greenlight emergency measures by member states including price caps and subsidies, at a summit next week.
China, the world’s top exporter, has been particularly hard hit, and to bridge the gap major energy companies such as Sinopec Corp and China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) are in advanced talks about long-term contracts with U.S. exporters of liquefied natural gas (LNG), sources told Reuters.
The discussions could lead to deals worth tens of billions of dollars that would mark a surge in China’s LNG imports from the United States at a time when relations between the two countries are still tense. At the height of the Sino-U.S. trade war in 2019, gas trade briefly came to a standstill.
“As state-owned enterprises, companies are all under pressure to keep the security of supply and the recent price trend has deeply changed the image of long-term supplies in the mind of leadership,” said a Beijing-based trader.
In a blow to the fight against global warming, China and other countries have turned to coal in the short term. Beijing has also taken a slew of measures to contain price rises, including raising domestic coal output and cutting supply to power-hungry industries.
The most active January Zhengzhou thermal coal futures contract CZCc1 hit a record high of 1,669.40 yuan ($259.42) per tonne early on Friday, having risen more than 200% year to date.
China has assured consumers that energy supplies will be secured for the winter heating season.
OIL KEEPS CLIMBING
President Vladimir Putin told Europe this week that Russia, the region’s largest gas supplier, could provide more gas if asked but some European politicians accuse Moscow of using the fuel crisis for leverage, a charge Russia denies.
Oil prices rose again on Friday to trade not far off their highest since 2014 close to $85 per barrel for benchmark Brent crude as the global gas and coal crunch encourages some consumers to switch to refined products.
Read rest at Reuters
Biden just like with Clinton(Bill)and Obama are all Traitors to America and the American People him like the rest of Liberal democrats are all Globalists and part of the New World Order
If Washington negotiates energy with Beijing, they should add a Wuhan Virus stipend. Demand reparations.
I a world that we all know has increasing energy needs, a situation has been deliberately created that’s caused a good number of the major oil co’s to “go quite” on production and exploration. This isn’t new. It’s been going on for around 5 years and now we are seeing the end result.
So, to all of those people who have been bad-mouthing the oil co’s, you should hang your collective heads in shame because there are millions of people less well off than you who are going to suffer from the cold this winter.
The United States denied oil to an Asian country back in 1941.
It took some years, a lot of deaths, and a couple of atomic bombs to straighten that mess out.
The Eco-Freaks never said a thing nor did they ever lift a finger when Sadam opened up those Oil Wells in the Persian Gulf but The Gulf Oil Spill and their ranting like maniac