Top Highlights

• The fact that the price was $147 in 2008 and $27 in early 2016 just tells you that it is volatile.
• this book is not about these short-term swings. It is about why fossil fuel prices may, in the medium and longer term, be heading gradually down; why, notwithstanding the price today or indeed on any given day, it is reasonable to expect the prices further out to fall. This is a book about the gradual demise of the fossil fuel industries, and how t...
• We may end up leaving the superabundant fossil fuels in the ground, but it is unlikely to come about through boycotts, demonstrations and campaigns about ‘stranded assets’.
• For the great oil-producing countries, such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, it is no picnic. It threatens the very survival of their autocratic regimes and the livelihoods of their citizens. So far, despite several attempts, they have failed to fix the price by credibly cutting supplies.
• These technological advances are coming thick and fast. This transformation of economies towards electricity – and the transformation of the electricity industry itself – changes almost everything for the oil and electricity companies. It changes their costs; it changes the nature of their markets; and it changes the competitive arena.