Over the last ten years, Kuwait's power consumption has doubled. This rising need for electricity has been mainly driven by the fast population growth rate, the increasing need for desalinated water, accounting for 93% of water consumption, and the economic development of the country.

First of all, shale oil is starting to take the same dimension as shale gas in the US. Already 51% of US production comes presently from unconventional gas (shale, tight gas and coal-bed methane), and outlooks predict that the US will produce more gas than Russia by 2020. Oil imports have already diminished from 60 to 45%. As domestic unconventional oil production tends to increase, - it is now around 15% - imports will probably decline even more.

Nuclear fission was discovered in the late 1930s. The first application went towards military use, and gradually expanded to civil use such as power generation. Power generation gained importance in two stages: firstly, to shift away from oil in power generation after the oil shocks in the 1970s, and second, to arrest climate change due to CO2-free nature of nuclear power more recently. This typically applies to Japan, which has become the world third largest in nuclear power generation. However, nuclear power is violent by nature, and major accidents of nuclear power plants shook the public confidence in nuclear safety. Japan has been put into such situation in a most radical way due to the Fukushima nuclear disaster of March 2011.

Italy is currently hit by an unprecedented economic, political and social crisis. This changing and uncertain environment affects more than ever the ability to define an energy strategy, which has never really benefitted from a clear vision and a solid organization. Since the 1987 referendum, which acknowledged the end of the nuclear program, the Italian energy policy has been elaborated through a juxtaposition of decrees and rules. Several laws have been approved either to comply with the European regulation or to correct former policies. These have contributed to the creation of a highly intricate regulation puzzle, only accessible to the most voluntary ones or the better equipped. The “success” of renewables subsidies has compromised the profitability of thermal power stations and increased the energy bills of retail consumers.

For China, coal is a crucial source of abundant, indigenous and affordable energy and is a pillar of economic and social stability. From a logic of energy security, and because the industry itself maintains a formidable political presence through the sheer fact of its history and size, this resource will continue to play a central role in the country’s energy mix. But in order to respond to the growing need to reduce the burden of coal use on the environment and the Chinese population, and to prevent catastrophic climate change, both Chinese leaders and the industry itself have faced a certain reality - coal must become cleaner.

The Energy Roadmap 2050 released by the Commission in December 2011 says it all: we will need more gas until 2030. Gas represents the default solution for a transition to an energy system with less GHG emissions. It also has great value as a back-up for intermittent renewable power generation. Therefore, stating that Europe still needs large quantities of gas means checking if supply volumes are available to satisfy growing demand.

The recent cold spell that gripped much of Europe was a test for the European gas network. In many countries temperatures fell dramatically to -10°C during the first week of February, even dropping a bone chilling - 22°C in some places.

As the European Commission(s Director General for Energy Philippe Lowe said during a speech at our Annual Conference last Thursday (February 16) in Brussels, Europe(s gas network was able to respond to the sharp increase in demand despite a simultaneous drop in supply from Gazprom.

Libya has an opportunity to get back on track. The end of embargoes and sanctions after the conclusion of the “February Revolution” is favoring a fast production growth. 

A funny thing happened in the last few years when no one was paying attention. J.R. Ewing, the legendary Texas oilman, and his wife Sue Ellen sold Southfork, their ranch near Dallas, and moved to a new home in Pennsylvania (Northfork?). JR immediately began buying subsurface mineral rights for acres of land above the Marcellus and Utica shale formations in the Appalachian Basin.