Energy worries - Jump in oil prices cause for anxiety

CRUDE OIL is at a record $88 a barrel, bringing the psychologically significant $100 a barrel milestone all the closer.

Prices have jumped because of concern Turkey may attack Kurdish militants in Iraq and disrupt shipments. US analysts also suggest that a winter cold snap might just be the final impetus needed to drive prices over the €100 mark.

Anyone concerned with the way the world’s energy market is developing will have taken note of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s ambitions, stated at this week’s Communist Party’s five-yearly congress, where he said that his priority is to sustain China’s double-digit growth. Such a tremendous economic force and such a tremendous population will impose demands on the market never before experienced.

All of this must be relevant for a small, peripheral country so utterly dependent on imported oil for its energy needs.

Increasing demand, the prospect of diminishing supplies, a dependence on the willingness of others to supply our needs and a geographical isolation we can do nothing about all combine to create an uneasy feeling.

It would be easier to dismiss this feeling if we had an energy policy with specific and realistic targets based on proven technologies, one not based on the continued availability of ample oil supplies.

It is difficult to shake off the feeling that we should be doing more, that we are wasting time and that we will, in time, regret not having acted more energetically and decisively.