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Natural gas prices 2000 ... from oil and is now trending somewhat with coal prices. ... that Brazil pays between $3.15 to $3.60 per million British thermal units ...
The price of metallurgical coal is volatile [112] and much higher than the price of thermal coal because metallurgical coal must be lower in sulfur and requires more cleaning. [113] Coal futures contracts provide coal producers and the electric power industry an important tool for hedging and risk management .
The U.S. Energy Information Administration defines the barrel of oil equivalent as about 6 gigajoules (1.7 megawatt-hours; 5.7 million British thermal units). [1] The value is necessarily approximate as various grades of oil and gas have slightly different heating values.
The International Energy Agency says the share of coal, oil, and natural gas in global energy supply, stuck for decades around 80%, will start to edge downward and reach 73% by 2030.
The current decline is notable given prices at the pump are about $0.30 lower than a year ago, when oil was hovering around the same levels as today.
At the time, coal was selling for about a quarter of the price of natural gas ($1.5 versus $5.0 per million BTU); however, the ratio has since become much smaller (as of 2010, coal has tripled in price to $4.63/mil BTU while gas is still at $5.189). [4] [6] (Natural gas is used as an alternative to thermal coal in electricity production.)
In Texas, the price drop of natural gas has reduced the capacity factor in 7 of the state's coal plants (max. output 8 GW), and they contribute about a quarter of the state's electricity. [26] The cost of transporting coal may be around $20/ton for trains, or $5–6/ton for barge and truck.
The period between 2010 and 2014, where hydrocarbon prices hovered around USD 100 per barrel, followed by a dramatic decline in 2016 to about USD 30 per barrel, exemplifies this volatility. This fluctuation in hydrocarbon prices can be attributed to several interconnected factors.