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OSLO (Reuters) – Almost a third of new cars sold in Norway last year were pure electric, a new world record as the country strives to end sales of fossil-fueled vehicles by 2025.

In a bid to cut carbon emissions and air pollution, Norway exempts battery-driven cars from most taxes and offers benefits such as free parking and charging points to hasten a shift from diesel and petrol engines.

The independent Norwegian Road Federation (NRF) said on Wednesday that electric cars rose to 31.2 percent of all sales last year, from 20.8 percent in 2017 and just 5.5 percent in 2013, while sales of petrol and diesel cars plunged.

“It was a small step closer to the 2025 goal,” by which time Norway’s parliament wants all new cars to be emissions-free, Oeyvind Solberg Thorsen, head of the NRF, told a conference.

Still, he cautioned that there was a long way to go since two-thirds of almost 148,000 cars sold in 2018 in Norway were powered by fossil fuel or were hybrids, which have both battery power and an internal combustion engine.

The sales figures consolidate Norway’s global lead in electric car sales per capita, part of an attempt by Western Europe’s biggest producer of oil and gas to transform to a greener economy.

The International Energy Agency (IEA), using a slightly different yardstick for electric vehicles that includes hybrids that can be plugged in, showed Norway’s share of such cars at 39 percent in 2017, far ahead of second-placed Iceland on 12 percent and Sweden on six percent.

By contrast, such electric cars had a 2.2 percent share in China in 2017 and 1.2 percent in the United States, IEA data show.

Erik Andresen, head of Norway’s car importers’ federation, said the boom for electric cars was denting Norway’s tax revenues, raising questions about future reforms to raise cash from the 5.3 million population.

Overall, new car sales in Norway fell 6.8 percent in 2018 to 147,929 vehicles, breaking a rising trend in recent years, NRF data showed.

Nissan’s upgraded Leaf electric car was the top-selling car in Norway last year, while other top-selling cars overall ranged from small BMWs and Volkswagens to full-size sedans and electric sport utility vehicles by Tesla.

Sales of pure electric cars surged 40 percent to 46,092 in 2018 while sales of diesel models fell 28 percent, petrol cars were down 17 percent and hybrids that cannot be plugged in fell 20 percent.

The Institute of Transport Economics (ITE), a consultancy, doubted that the 2025 goal for emissions-free new cars could be reached.

“Strictly speaking I don’t think it’s possible, primarily because too many people don’t have a private parking space and won’t want to buy a plug-in car if they can’t establish a charging point at home,” ITE economist Lasse Fridstroem said.

“We may be able to get to a 75 percent (market share), provided that the tax breaks are maintained,” he added.

The Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association (NEVA), a lobby group, predicted a 100 percent market share was feasible.

“We know that charging access is a real barrier … and there’s also a risk that not enough cars become available,” NEVA head Christina Bu said, adding that some customers must wait for a year or more before their electric vehicle is delivered.

Reporting by Alister Doyle, editing by Terje Solsvik/Adrian Croft/Susan Fenton

In 2019, more than 10M tonnes of gasoil was transported up the Rhine to German, French and Swiss destinations. The average volume transported by barge up the Rhine on a weekly base was 201K tonnes. The highest volume was 265K tonnes in mid-February. As can be seen from figure 1 the trend during the year is a modest decrease in transported volumes.

Figure 1: Quarterly Barge Gasoil Flows to Hinterland (c) Insights Global

Quarter 1 of last year showed the highest barge export numbers compared to the other quarters. Healthy demand for heating oil during the winter supports higher transports flows. The minimum week volume (138K tonnes) was realized during Christmas when market participants were not active. End-of-year obligations depress volumes in quarter four of

2018 shows a similar pattern with the highest volumes of gasoil barge transports in the first quarter of the year and the lowest volumes in the last quarter. However the trend is more extreme and when we compare the total volume of gasoil that has been exported up the Rhine by barge we see an enormous difference in volume.

In 2018, some 7.6M tonnes was exported. The main reason for the low volume in 2018 were the extremely low Rhine water levels, especially in quarter 3 and 4. During this water level regime barge freight rates spiked to record highs. The average weekly volume in 2018 was 148K tonnes, while the high was recorded in March at 266K tonnes and the low was recorded in October at 85K tonnes.

As can be seen from figure 2, most of the gasoil that was transported by barge upstream went to Germany, followed by Switzerland and France. This clearly emphasizes the importance of the river Rhine for the German oil market.

Figure 2: ex ARA destinations for Gasoil per country

For more information on oil product barge flows, check out our Rhine Flow Service Report or request a trial by filling in form below.

1. Bunkers now more expensive than other fuels in barrel terms
2. IMO 2020 rules have triggered demand for low-sulfur product

(Bloomberg) Once considered the pungent sludge left over after refineries made things like gasoline and diesel, fuel for ships has suddenly become the oil industry’s must-make product.

The prices of so-called bunkers in Europe have surged this year to such an extent that they’re more expensive than diesel, gasoline and jet fuel — at least in barrel terms, the unit that refineries use to calculate their processing margins.

The reason for the rally is because the fuel in question just fundamentally changed. On Jan. 1, it became mandatory for most of the world’s merchant fleet to consume fuel containing no more than 0.5% sulfur. Until Dec. 31, a 3.5% upper limit existed in most parts of the world.

The upgrade — to improve human health and combat environmental concerns — has radically altered economics for refineries in many parts of the world. Some can churn out the new product, others are likely having a tougher time.

To be clear, at an industrial level, the products in question often trade in and are shipped in metric tons. And on a price-per-ton basis, shipping fuel remains the cheapest of the four products in northwest Europe, despite surging in recent weeks. That’s because it’s much denser than those other products.

Supply of the new shipping fuel is going through a few teething problems. It’s often made in slightly different ways than the old type. Some testing companies are finding fault with early batches of the new product, even if the full scale of those issues remains unclear.

By Jack Wittels with assistance by Alaric Nightingale

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Renewables overtook coal as Germany’s main source of energy for the first time last year, accounting for just over 40 percent of electricity production, research showed on Thursday.

The shift marks progress as Europe’s biggest economy aims for renewables to provide 65 percent of its energy by 2030 in a costly transition as it abandons nuclear power by 2022 and is devising plans for an orderly long-term exit from coal.

The research from the Fraunhofer organization of applied science showed that output of solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric generation units rose 4.3 percent last year to produce 219 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity. That was out of a total national power production of 542 TWh derived from both green and fossil fuels, of which coal burning accounted for 38 percent.

Green energy’s share of Germany’s power production has risen from 38.2 percent in 2017 and just 19.1 percent in 2010.

Bruno Burger, author of the Fraunhofer study, said it was set to stay above 40 percent this year.

“We will not fall below the 40 percent in 2019 because more renewable installations are being built and weather patterns will not change that dramatically,” he said.

Green power skeptics say that output merely reflects favorable weather patterns and does not prove the sector’s contribution to secure energy supplies.

Solar power increased by 16 percent to 45.7 TWh due to a prolonged hot summer, while installed capacity expanded by 3.2 gigawatts (GW) to 45.5 GW last year, according to the Fraunhofer data.

The wind power industry produced 111 TWh from combined onshore and offshore capacity of just under 60 GW, constituting 20.4 percent of total German power output.

Wind power was the biggest source of energy after domestically mined brown coal power which accounted for 24.1 percent.

Coal plants run on imported hard coal contributed 75.7 TWh, or 13.9 percent of the total.

Hydropower only accounted for 3.2 percent of power production at 17 TWh, as extreme summer heat dried out rivers and was accompanied by low rainfall. Biomass output contributed 8.3 percent.

Gas-to-power plants accounted for 7.4 percent of the total; nuclear energy for 13.3 percent; with the remainder coming from oil and waste burning.

Germany was a net exporter of 45.6 TWh of power in 2018, mostly to the Netherlands, while importing big volumes from France.

Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Susan Fenton

LONDON (Reuters) – Natural gas is expected to overtake coal as the world’s second largest energy source after oil by 2030 due to a drive to cut air pollution and the rise in liquefied natural gas (LNG) use, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday.

The Paris-based IEA said in its World Energy Outlook 2018 that energy demand would grow by more than a quarter between 2017 and 2040 assuming more efficient use of energy – but would rise by twice that much without such improvements.

Global gas demand would increase by 1.6 percent a year to 2040 and would be 45 percent higher by then than today, it said.

The estimates are based on the IEA’s “New Policies Scenario” that takes into account legislation and policies to reduce emissions and fight climate change. They also assume more energy efficiencies in fuel use, buildings and other factors.

“Natural gas is the fastest growing fossil fuel in the New Policies Scenario, overtaking coal by 2030 to become the second-largest source of energy after oil,” the report said.

China, already the world’s biggest oil and coal importer, would soon become the largest importer of gas and net imports would approach the level of the European Union by 2040, the IEA said.

According to Reuters calculations, based on China’s General Administration of Customs data, China has already overtaken Japan as the world’s top natural gas importer.

Although China is the world’s third-biggest user of natural gas behind the United States and Russia, it has to import about 40 percent of its needs as local production cannot keep pace.

Emerging economies in Asia would account for about half of total global gas demand growth and their share of LNG imports would double to 60 percent by 2040, the IEA report said.

“Although talk of a global gas market similar to that of oil is premature, LNG trade has expanded substantially in volume since 2010 and has reached previously isolated markets,” it said. LNG involves cooling gas to a liquid so it can transported by ship.

COAL AND CARBON

The United States could account for 40 percent of total gas production growth to 2025, the IEA said, while other sources would take over as U.S. shale gas output flattened and other nations started turning to unconventional methods of gas production, such as hydraulic fracturing or fracking.

Global electricity demand will grow 2.1 percent a year, mostly driven by rising use in developing economies. Electricity will account for a quarter of energy used by end users such as consumers and industry by 2040, it said.

Coal and renewables will swap their positions in the power generation mix. The share of coal is forecast to fall from about 40 percent today to a quarter in 2040 while renewables would grow to just over 40 percent from a quarter now.

However, the world’s coal plants make up one third of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions today. Many of those are in Asia, where average coal plants are on average 11 years old with decades left to operate, compared with an average age of 40 years in the United States and Europe.

“We can create some room for maneuver by expanding the use of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage, hydrogen, improving energy efficiency, and in some cases, retiring capital stock early. To be successful, this will need an unprecedented global political and economic effort,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director.

Energy-related CO2 emissions could reach a record high this year, the IEA said, and will continue to grow at a slow but steady pace to 2040. From 2017 levels, the IEA said emissions would rise by 10 percent to 36 gigatonnes in 2040, mostly driven by growth in oil and gas.

But this is “far out of step” with what scientific knowledge says would be required to tackle climate change, it added.

Reporting by Nina Chestney; Editing by Edmund Blair and Louise Heavens