ABSTRACT
Entering 2011, the oil price was pushing its way up towards $100 again. The IEA duly warned that the rising price would threaten the fragile recovery under way in the industrialised nations. Rising oil prices tend to drive up coal and gas prices as well. The US shale gas boom was proving to be an exception, in that the US gas market is isolated enough from other world markets that rapidly expanding American shale gas production could drive domestic gas prices down, while at the same time prices in other markets rose. In the UK, they were rising high enough to be a political issue. The Major User Energy Council warned that rising energy costs were damaging the British economy. As for consumers, the average annual combined gas and electricity bill reached £1,250. The number of households in fuel poverty was soaring.
