GustavoRinaldi’s Academic Site

In 2022 the oil and gas industry has made huge profits thanks to the big increases of our energy bills and contributing to the growth of inflation in our countries. When people were asking to put extra taxes on those profits, the energy sector argued that they needed resources to invest in a carbon free transition.

The International Energy Agency shows us that about 50% of the available cash has been used to give money to shareholders (dividends and purchases of own shares are in green in the picture), 48% in the fossile sources (light blue in the picture) and close to nothing to renewable sources (the dark blue in the picture). With several regions under water and others in full drought or with wildfires burning them, the cost of such policies it is not hard to understand.

On Friday 26 May 2023 gas at the TTF in Amsterdam cost 24,520. To find lower prices you need to go to 27 September 2021.

In these conditions it is possible to make provisions, filling the deposits and spending very little. Obviously in Italy the price of gas is burdened by taxes, but this is logical: a state that wants to have a surplus in its primary budget must impose a lot of taxes and must depress domestic demand.

This lower gas price will probably favor a further slowdown in inflation in Europe.

Venerdì 26 maggio 2023 i gas al TTF di Amsterdam costava 24,520. Per trovare prezzi più bassi bisogna andare al 27 settembre 2021.

In queste condizioni è possibile fare provviste, riempendo i depositi e spendendo assai poco. Ovviamente in Italia il prezzo del gas è gravato da tasse, ma questo è logico: uno stato che vuole avere un bilancio primario in surplus deve mettere tante tasse e deve deprimere la domanda interna.

Questo abbassamento del prezzo del gas favorirà probabilmente un ulteriore rallentamento dell’inflazione in Europa.