Introduction
Last’s week column identified several key trends on the demand side of the global energy market. This was done in order to contextualize Guyana’s future insertion into this market, when its production and export of oil and natural gas come on stream in the early 2020s. To complete this contextualization, today’s column considers the supply side of the global energy market.
To recall, the two demand trends singled out last week were 1) declining global energy demand, mainly from China, and 2) dramatic improvements in energy efficiency, across many countries. In spite of these trends, however, China is still forecast to remain for some time well into the future the world’s largest market for energy. Further, as a consequence of all the demand trends indicated last week, analysts view global energy demand as being in a state of fundamental transition. Of special note, the British Petroleum (BP) report which was