Tensions between Greece and Turkey and the American sanctions against the completion of the Nordstream 2 pipe line in the North Sea are revealing with a full daylight the new importance and the geopolitical challenges linked to natural gas. 20^th century had been the oil century with major political and economic consequences. During the Twenties, the breaking up of the Ottoman Empire and the sharing, between Western powers of the territories where were located oil fields had, through the “Red Line Agreements” allowed oil majors emergence and guaranteed the supplying of Western countries. It was the oil embargo against ...

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In June, the oil group BP publishes energy production and consumption statistics for the previous year by sources and by countries. That allows to having a precise and definitive idea of the world situation, of CO2 emissions, of the evolution of the repartition between different fossil fuels, renewable and nuclear power and especially of the mid-term trends which are appearing. They allow to dismiss many wrong ideas regarding energy transition and to carry a judgment on the different proposals which are circulating in this domain.

The first observation is about energy consumption which, as a whole, is not failing, even ...

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The oil prices slump last week has given to the crisis resulting from the corona virus outbreak a new dimension. It has weighted on the financial markets which were starting to hope thanks to the reduction of the mortality rate and the announcement of the first measures about the end of lockdown. The quotation with a maturity date of the American petrol (measured by the WTI index) went even into negative territory and the Brent index, which is a representative one for the rest of the world, went below 20 dollars per barrel. It had fluctuated between 50 and 60 ...

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