Ryan Chilcote:
Absolutely.
I mean, weather is one. So we had a very cold winter last year, and people are anticipating another cold winter, so you get hoarding. Lack of investment. During the lockdowns, there was a lot of uncertainty about the future, so people didn’t put money into oil and gas.
Plus, with responsible investment, ESG, putting money into oil and gas is just not particularly popular, so money didn’t flow for that reason either.
Then, of course, you have the issue of renewables not always being reliable. Bob Dudley, you may remember, was the CEO of BP. He runs an industry body called the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative. They represent 12 of the biggest energy companies out there that produce oil and gas other, but they also work with renewables.
And they said, quite frankly, this last year, when it comes to renewable energy, has been a little bit of a letdown.
Robert Dudley, Chairman, Oil and Gas Climate Initiative : These are not to blame on anyone. These circumstances came up very quickly. The wind didn’t blow like it was supposed to, or people thought in Europe this year, and the U.K., which is a clue about why we need resilient fuels and backups and natural gas as well.
I think you’re seeing, because of these high prices, actually switches to coal now around the world. Not good for the environment.