The world's energy crisis is severe, and the global population is about to fall into the extreme cold of this winter

This winter of 2021, the world's energy shortage is very serious, and the energy crisis is very worrying.

As countries stop using dirty fuels like coal as their primary source of energy and increase their use of clean energy, they are more dependent on natural gas than ever to power their home heating and power industries. However, during the epidemic, the suspension of work and production in various countries has led to a serious shortage of natural gas reserves. And as gas exporters such as Russia keep more gas in their own countries, other countries can only prioritize gas supply by raising prices. Now that winter is over and temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere are dropping, this competition for natural gas demand will intensify.

Europe's energy crisis heralds an energy crisis in the rest of the world. Governments have issued warnings of power outages and may require factories to suspend production. And at this time of year, inventories at Gas Storage Facilities in Europe are at record lows because of limited gas pipeline output from Russia and Norway. Worryingly, as the smooth winter weather reduces wind power production, europe's aging nuclear power plants are being phased out, and countries are prone to large-scale blackouts, which will eventually lead to a stronger demand for natural gas in countries. European gas prices have soared nearly 500 percent over the past year, and trading volumes are already near all-time highs.

Even if the Northern Hemisphere doesn't experience an extremely cold winter this year, the current energy shortage is expected to further push up gas prices in much of the world. In China, industrial users, including ceramics, glass and cement manufacturers, are likely to raise prices; Brazilian households will face expensive electricity bills. Countries like Pakistan or Bangladesh could stagnate because economies that can't afford fuel could come to a standstill.

Social groups and national administrations are praying for a stable climate this winter, because it is too late to increase gas reserves. Rising energy costs, combined with tight supply chains and food prices reaching a decade-long high, could make central bankers worry that the current global inflation situation continues to deteriorate, and futures traders around the world will now be keeping an eye on all weather forecasts released between now and December, and temperature problems will seriously affect international natural gas prices.

In Asia, LNG importers are paying record higher prices to secure supply this time of year, and some importers are snapping up dirtier fuels like coal in case they don't get enough gas fuel. That could undermine government efforts to meet their green goals, as natural gas emits only about half as much carbon dioxide as coal when it burns.

Utilities in Japan and South Korea, though, are largely protected by their countries' long-term LNG contracts linked to oil. Still, Korea Electric Power Corp. said on Sept. 23 it would raise tariffs for the first time in nearly eight years. A sudden cold snap could force more power companies into the gas spot market to buy emergency gas supplies at record high prices, as was the case last winter.

Securing LNG supplies has sparked a political controversy in economically constrained Pakistan, where opposition politicians have demanded an economic investigation into the gas procurement activities of the country's state-owned importers as soaring international gas prices have affected the country's economy.

In Brazil, the drastic decline in water flow to the Paraná River basin for nearly a century has led to a significant reduction in hydropower production, forcing Brazilian utilities to rely more heavily on natural gas. The country raised its natural gas imports to record highs in July, electricity bills are rising, and inflation is already happening at home.

Qatar's energy minister Saad Al-Kaabi warned at an industry conference this month that Asia, Europe, the Middle East and South America will be in full competition for LNG production in exporting countries such as Qatar, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States, with huge demand from all of our customers and, unfortunately, we can't meet everyone's needs.

Amos Hochstein, senior adviser on energy security at the U.S. State Department, told Bloomberg television on Sept. 20: "If it's really cold this winter, I'm worried that parts of Europe won't have enough natural gas for heating." ”。 For some countries, "it's not just a matter of changes in energy prices, the shortage of natural gas will affect the country's ability to heat people in winter, and this will also affect everyone's lives." ”

And with new natural gas projects coming online at the end of the year, U.S. natural gas exporters are poised to ship more LNG than ever before. But as more natural gas flows abroad, less and less natural gas will be available domestically. While natural gas prices in the U.S. are significantly lower than in Europe and Asia, they are also trading at near their highest levels since 2014, with gas inventories below their nearly five-year seasonal averages. U.S. shale drillers, on the other hand, are reluctant to increase production for fear that it will affect their profitability. U.S. industrial energy consumers are also asking the Department of Energy to reduce U.S. natural gas exports until weather heat storage levels return to normal, a move that could also exacerbate the world's energy shortages.

In the past, ordinary people paid little attention to the market price of natural gas. Natural gas is different from oil, a decision by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will almost immediately affect the cost of ordinary people in gas stations, the people are more sensitive to the price of oil, and the price of natural gas, in daily life, it is difficult for ordinary people to perceive changes, then this winter, people around the world may understand the extent to which the global economy depends on natural gas, and how important natural gas occupies in daily life.