Real-Time Electricity Prices Advance on High Demand

Oil and gas giant BP on Thursday published its benchmark Statistical Review of World Energy, describing 2020 “as a year like no other” due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on global energy.

Over the past seven decades, BP said it had borne witness to some of the most dramatic episodes in the history of the global energy system, including the Suez Canal crisis in 1956, the oil embargo of 1973, the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the Fukushima disaster in 2011.

“All moments of great turmoil in global energy,” Spencer Dale, chief economist at BP, said in the report. “But all pale in comparison to the events of last year.”

Energy Developments

BP said the coronavirus crisis last year resulted in primary energy and carbon emissions falling at their fastest rates since World War II. The relentless expansion of renewable energy, however, was found to be “relatively unscathed,” with solar power recording its fastest ever increase.

To be sure, the oil and gas company said world energy demand was estimated to have contracted by 4.5% and global carbon emissions from energy use by 6.3%.

“These falls are huge by historical standards — the largest falls in both energy demand and carbon emissions since World War II. Indeed, the fall of over 2 Gt of CO2 means that carbon emissions last year were back to levels last seen in 2011,” Dale said.

“It’s also striking that the carbon intensity of the energy mix — the average carbon emitted per unit of energy used — fell by 1.8%, also one of the largest ever falls in post-war history,” he added.

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