Global coal consumption surges as gas costs skyrocket as EU looking to replace Russian gas with Nigerian supplies
As sanctions on Russia sustained in response to its invasion on Ukraine drives up prices of gas, coal-generated electricity surges across the globe in response to the increased demand for power supply.
A record 10,244 terawatt-hours of electricity was produced in 20121 surpassing the 10,098 TWh record set in 2018 according to a report by British Petroleum (BP) titled “Statistical review of World Energy” released recently and quoted by OilPrice. Coal generators are on the path to breaking this record amidst the global uncertainty making gas expensive for households in Europe and Asia, thereby resulting in minimal gas consumption, the report stated.
Majorwaves also learnt that the output of coal mines was still “fractionally below the 2012-2014 numbers” because of improved efficiency. “Global coal mine production was 8,173 million tonnes in 2021 compared with 8,180-8,256 million per year between 2012 and 2014.” The rapidly expanding use of coal is in sharp contrast to the Net-Zero by 2050 agenda championed by Western interests, the European Union in particular.
This also represents a setback for climate lobbyists in Europe who were previously successful in driving down the use of fossil fuels in favour of renewables.
In a related development, Reuters reported that the EU is mulling a replacement for Russian gas in Nigerian exports. The deputy director-general of the European Commission’s energy department said during a meeting with Nigerian officials in Lagos that he had been informed that the country was committed to improving security in the Niger Delta and planned to re-open the Trans Niger pipeline after August which will yield more gas exports to the EU.
Theft and vandalism has bedeviled Nigerian oil and gas output and the Nigeria LNG terminal at Bonny Island was only operating at 60% capacity. Baldwin was quoted as saying, “If we can get up to beyond 80%, at that point, there might be additional LNG that could be available for spot cargoes to come to Europe.”
Nigeria reportedly delivered 23 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas to Europe which had been on a downturn as in 2018, that number was 36 bcm of LNG.
