[en] Some potential problematic new developments on the European energy front are discussed in this paper which follows a talk given at an Australian university in June 1988. Coal, nuclear and natural gas are treated with their difficulties and/or problems. The present status of nuclear energy is considered as unfavourable in many countries of Europe and in the USA due to Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and the opposition of environmentalists. Oil is not considered at all. To the author's opinion, in the middle of 21st century or later things have to be reconsidered and nuclear energy may be again viewed differently, especially in Sweden. (qui)

[en] This is a book on applied energy economics. Coal is the principal topic, but the reader will also find self-contained and thorough surveys of the world oil market, nuclear energy and uranium, and natural gas. A chapter on electricity is especially designed for teaching purposes. The final chapter contains a short summary of the book in the form of an up-to-date analysis of the world coal market

[en] This paper is an up-to-date, but only moderately technical survey, of the natural gas market. Supply, demand and pricing are discussed, and, in the light of the electricity deregulation experiment in California, where the expression ''dangerous failure'' has been repeatedly used to describe the extensive losses suffered by final consumers and utilities (or retailers), a modicum of attention is paid to the prospects for deregulating natural gas. Some microeconomics of the natural gas market is presented at a more elementary level than in author's energy economics textbook (2000) or book ''The Political Economy of Natural Gas'' (1987), and the author makes a studied attempt to avoid bringing the misleading Hotelling model (of exhaustible resource depletion) into the exposition. Finally, some comments on risk management with futures contracts are provided, and there is a brief mathematical appendix on futures, options and two-part pricing. (author)

[en] The deregulation of electricity has failed in Sweden. Since the beginning of the deregulation 'experiment', the trend price of electricity has increased much faster than the consumer price index, especially during recent years. More importantly, because of (1) the lack of investment in domestic generating (and perhaps transmission) facilities by Swedish power companies, (2) the questionable strategy employed by these firms to mange hydroelectric reserves, (3) increased and to some extent irrational energy taxes, and (4) the beginning of nuclear 'disengagement', households and businesses are vulnerable to a prolonged 'spike' in electricity prices. Everything considered, the recent history of the Swedish electricity sector - and particularly that of the overpraised Nordic Electric Exchange (i.e. Nord Pool) - should be considered a wake-up call instead of an example. (author)

[en] Just because gas is labelled the fuel of the future does not ensure that it will become exactly that; but faith is important. If the world's energy establishments really want to expand their use of natural gas, all the objective conditions exist to make this expansion possible: large and increasing gas supplies; impressive changes in gas-burning technologies; a widespread acceptance of gas by both the general public and environmentalists; and so on. The considerable increase in the supply of gas is probably regarded as bad news by many exporters of gas, but I am not so sure that this will prove to be the case. Instead, a situation may be foreseen where the widely advertized rising supply will tend to encourage demand, since many actual and potential gas users will be inclined to interpret rapidly increasing gas reserves as the forerunner of an extended buyers' market. Two other factors working in favour of natural gas are the growing belief that the remaining reserves of oil are considerably more limited than previously believed and the increase in the value of natural gas due to technological advances being made in gas-burning equipment. The pattern of economic growth and development in Sweden which does not have natural gas and the key role of the electricity sector, is a pointer to countries which do possess gas that they should pay particular attention to its value in electricity generation. (author)

[en] This paper provides a theoretical treatment of some important concepts associated with the production of crude oil, and makes some comments on the present state of the world oil market. Something that should never be forgotten is that the world oil market is a very complicated place, and reading it correctly involves considerably more than drawing conclusions from mainstream economic theorizing. First and foremost, the oil price in the future is going to depend on how OPEC manages its production, and on what happens to the production capacity, and reserves, of countries outside OPEC

[en] This paper describes the relationships between petroleum prices and derivative markets (options, futures). 11 refs

[en] According to many observers, Swedish nuclear electricity is the safest in the world, owing to the high technological level in Sweden. This electricity is also among the least expensive because of the high capacity factors in Swedish nuclear installations. Even so, there may soon be an attempt to begin dismantling the Swedish nuclear sector, which in turn, could lead to serious problems for the Swedish macroeconomy. This article attempts to provide an analysis of some of the key economic issues associated with a Swedish nuclear retreat

[en] More attention needs to be paid to the mechanics of basis risk. The Metallgesellschaft debacle was mainly due to very large margin calls in conjunction with unfavourable changes in the basis, although this easily verifiable fact does not seem to be widely appreciated. One of the claims of this short paper is that futures markets are, at the present time at least, unsatisfactory for the hedging of price risk in the markets for electricity. Basis risk is also a well-known problem in the United States of America, where natural gas futures are concerned. The discussion in this note is mostly non-technical, and should be accessible to all readers with an elementary knowledge of futures markets

[en] The world's largest oil trading forum is the Brent System, consisting of two so-called 15 day markets - for 'paper' and 'real' oil; and the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) in London. The problem is that this system's progress toward an efficient and transparent pricing mechanism has not been trouble free, although recent innovative departures from conventional futures market practice have reduced the capacity of large oil companies and trading firms to manipulate this market. It also seems likely that the progress being made in combining various derivatives will open up new possibilities for commodity risk management. (author)