2000s European sovereign debt crisis timeline
This was the first Eurozone crisis since its creation in 1999. As Samuel Brittan pointed out, Jason Manolopoulos "shows conclusively that the Eurozone is far from an optimum currency area". Niall Ferguson also wrote in 2010 that "the sovereign debt crisis that is unfolding... is a fiscal crisis of the western world". Axel Merk argued in a May 2011 Financial Times article that the dollar was in graver danger than the euro.


2000s European sovereign debt crisis timeline
Concern about rising government deficits and debt levels across the globe together with a wave of downgrading of European government debt created alarm in financial markets. The debt crisis is mostly centred on events in Greece, where the cost of financing government debt has risen. On 2 May 2010, the Eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund agreed to a €110 billion loan for Greece, conditional on the implementation of harsh austerity measures.


2000s European sovereign debt crisis timeline
On 9 May 2010, Europe's Finance Ministers approved a comprehensive rescue package worth €750 billion (then almost a trillion dollars) aimed at ensuring financial stability across Europe by creating the European Financial Stability Facility. The Greek bail-out was followed by an €85 billion rescue package for Ireland in November, and a €78 billion bail-out for Portugal in May 2011.


2000s European sovereign debt crisis timeline
While the sovereign debt increases have been most pronounced in only a few Eurozone countries they have become a perceived problem for the area as a whole. In May 2011, the crisis resurfaced, concerning mostly the refinancing of Greek public debt. The Greek people generally rejected the austerity measures and have expressed their dissatisfaction with protests. In late June 2011, the crisis situation was again brought under control with the Greek government managing to pass a package of new austerity measures and EU leaders pledging funds to support the country. In May 2012 the crisis escalated to new levels following the national Greek legislative election, May 2012. Greek parties failed to form a coalition Government following the election and there was widespread speculation of Greece exiting the Eurozone, termed a "Grexit".


2000s European sovereign debt crisis timeline
Below is a brief summary of some of the main events since the Greek government debt crisis.


2000s commodities boom
The 2000s commodities boom or the commodities super cycle was the rise of many physical commodity prices (such as those of food, oil, metals, chemicals, fuels and the like) during the early 21st century (2000–2014), following the Great Commodities Depression of the 1980s and 1990s. The boom was largely due to the rising demand from emerging markets such as the BRIC countries, particularly China during the period from 1992 to 2013, as well as the result of concerns over long-term supply availability. There was a sharp down-turn in prices during 2008 and early 2009 as a result of the credit crunch and sovereign debt crisis, but prices began to rise as demand recovered from late 2009 to mid-2010.


2000s commodities boom
Oil began to slip downwards after mid-2010, but peaked at $101.80 on 30 and 31 January 2011, as the Egyptian revolution of 2011 broke out, leading to concerns over both the safe use of the Suez Canal and overall security in Arabia itself. On 3 March, Libya's National Oil Corp said that output had halved due to the departure of foreign workers. As this happened, Brent Crude surged to a new high of above $116.00 a barrel as supply disruptions and potential for more unrest in the Middle East and North Africa continued to worry investors.


2000s commodities boom
Thus the price of oil kept rising into the 2010s. The commodities supercycle peaked in 2011, "driven by a combination of strong demand from emerging nations and low supply growth". Prior to 2002, only 5 to 10 per cent of trading in the commodities market was attributable to investors. Since 2002 "30 per cent of trading is attributable to investors in the commodities market" which "has caused higher price volatility".


2000s commodities boom
The 2000s commodities boom is comparable to the commodity supercycles which accompanied post–World War II economic expansion and the Second Industrial Revolution in the second half of the 19th century and early 20th century.


2000s commodities boom, Background of depressed prices
The prices of raw materials were depressed and declining from, roughly, 1982 until 1998. From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation-adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under $25/barrel. Since 1968 the price of gold has ranged widely, from a high of $850/oz ($27,300/kg) on 21 January 1980, to a low of $252.90/oz ($8,131/kg) on 21 June 1999 (London Gold Fixing).


2000s commodities boom, Background of depressed prices
The analysis of this period is based on the work of Robert Solow and is rooted in macroeconomic theories of trade including the Mundell–Fleming model. One opinion stated that


2000s commodities boom, Background of depressed prices
"The volatility and interest rates found its way into commodity inputs and all sectors of the world economy."


2000s commodities boom, Background of depressed prices
Hence, in the case of an economic crisis commodities prices follow the trends in exchange rate (coupled) and its prices decrease in case there are downward trends of diminishing money supply.


2000s commodities boom, Background of depressed prices
Foreign exchange impacts commodities prices and so does money supply: the advent of a crisis will pull commodities prices down.


2000s commodities boom, Boom
A commodity price bubble, known as the 2000s commodities boom, was created following the collapse of the mid-2000s housing bubble. Commodities were seen as a safe bet after the bubble economy surrounding housing prices had gone from boom to bust in several western nations, including the USA, UK, Ireland, Greece and Spain. Advisers claimed that commodity prices could be predicted better than stocks, since they are traded for actual usage and the price is based on supply and demand, while stocks are bought for speculation and news immediately influence prices. Still commodity prices have fluctuated outside predictions.


2000s commodities boom, Boom
The renewed interest in coal by China's and Taiwan's energy companies and the rise of alternative power sources like wind farms helped modify coal prices over the 2000s.


2000s commodities boom, Boom
Chlorine price steadily increased throughout 2007 and early 2008 as demand for PVC and some metals like copper, neodymium and tantalum rose due to the increased growth of the BRIC countries' demand for electrical goods. Russia increased production, but the US offset this with production cuts in the late 1990s and mid-2000s.


2000s commodities boom, Boom
Phosphorus, rhodium, molybdenum, manganese, vanadium and palladium are used in high grade steels, oil based lubricants, automotive catalytic converters, chemical plants' catalysts, electronics, TV screens and in radio isotopes. Demand for these metals appeared to be increasing as computers and mobile phones became more popular in the mid to late 2000s. Thulium is used in x-ray tubes and neodymium is used in high strength/high grade magnets.


2000s commodities boom, Boom
Molybdenum, rhodium, neodymium and palladium are relatively scarce metals, while manganese and vanadium are, like phosphorus and sulfur, fairly abundant for minor minerals. The major metals such as iron, lead and tin are commonplace.


2000s commodities boom, Boom
Recycling of the aluminum, ferrous metals, copper fractions, gold, palladium and platinum in mobile phones and computers had got under way by the mid-2000s. Battery recycling has helped bring down both the nickel and cadmium prices.


2000s commodities boom, Boom
Sulfuric acid (an important chemical commodity used in processes such as steel processing, copper production and bioethanol production) increased in price 3.5-fold in less than 1 year while producers of sodium hydroxide have declared force majeure due to flooding, precipitating similarly steep price increases.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Food, Corn, wheat, rice, cocoa and Soya beans
Both a rising global population and a sharp decline in food crop production in favour of a sharp rise in biofuel crops helped cause a sharp rise in basic food stock prices. Ethiopia also saw a drought threaten its already frail farm lands in 2007. Cocoa was also affected by a bad crop in 2008, due to disease and unusually heavy rain in parts of West Africa.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Food, Corn, wheat, rice, cocoa and Soya beans
Rising demand in both India and Egypt helped to ramp up demand for American wheat during the bull market during August 2007. Discounted wheat sold at about £11–£15/t. August 2007, with non-discounted wheat at slightly higher price. The November 2007 wheat futures market was trading at nearly £165/t, with November 2008 contracts at £128.50. The market became rather bearish as non-futures prices froze and stagnated in December 2007. The price of wheat reached record highs after Kazakhstan began to limit supplies being sold overseas in early 2008, but had slowed down by late 2008. Food riots hit Egypt on 12 April 2008, as national bread prices rose rapidly in March and April 2008.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Food, Corn, wheat, rice, cocoa and Soya beans
In late April 2008 rice prices hit 24 cents (U.S.) per U.S. pound, more than doubling the price in just seven months. The price of wheat had risen from an already high £88 per tonne to £91 from January to March 2010, due to the bullish market and currency concerns. This led to food riots in places such as Haiti, Indonesia, Côte d'Ivoire, Uzbekistan, Egypt and Ethiopia.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Food, Corn, wheat, rice, cocoa and Soya beans
On 31 July, leading economists predicted that food prices, especially wheat would rise in Chad as Russia ended exports due to a domestic drought destroying their wheat and barley harvests. By 3 August, wheat prices stood at $7.11 per bushel due to the Russian export ban.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Paper, Recycled paper
The price of recycled paper has varied greatly over the last 30 or so years. The German price of €100/£49 per tonne was typical for the year 2003 and it steadily rose over the years. By September 2008 saw American price of $235 per ton had fallen to just $120 per ton, The slump was probably due to the economic down turn in East Asia causing the market for waste paper drying up in China. 2010 prices averaged $120.32 at the start of the year, but saw a rapid rise in global prices in May 2010, reaching $217.11 per ton in the US in June 2010 as China's paper market began to reopen.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Fuel, Coal
Coal prices rose to A$73 per tonne in September and then up to A$84 per tonne in the October 2009 due to renewed interest by China's and Taiwan's energy companies.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Fuel, Oil
During 2003, the price rose above $30, reached $60 by 11 August 2005, and peaked at $147.30 in July 2008. Commentators attributed the heavy price increases to many factors, including reports from the United States Department of Energy and others showing a decline in petroleum reserves, worries over peak oil, Middle East tension, and oil price speculation.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Fuel, Oil
For a time, geo-political events and natural disasters indirectly related to the global oil market had strong short-term effects on oil prices, such as North Korean missile tests, the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon, worries over Iranian nuclear plans in 2006, Hurricane Katrina, and various other factors. By 2008, such pressures appeared to have an insignificant impact on oil prices given the onset of the global recession. The recession caused demand for energy to shrink in late 2008, with oil prices falling from the July 2008 high of $147 to a December 2008 low of $32. Oil prices stabilized by October 2009 and established a trading range between $60 and $80.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Fuel, Oil
The price of oil nearly tripled from $50 to $147 from early 2007 to 2008, before plunging as the financial crisis began to take hold in late 2008. Experts debate the causes, which include the flow of money from housing and other investments into commodities to speculation and monetary policy or the increasing feeling of raw materials scarcity in a fast-growing world economy and thus positions taken on those markets, such as Chinese increasing presence in Africa. An increase in oil prices tends to divert a larger share of consumer spending into gasoline, which creates downward pressure on economic growth in oil importing countries, as wealth flows to oil-producing states.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Fuel, Oil
In January 2008, oil prices surpassed $100 a barrel for the first time, the first of many price milestones to be passed in the course of the year. In July 2008, oil peaked at $147.30 a barrel and a gallon of gasoline was more than $4 across most of the US. The high of 2008 may have been part of broader pattern of spiking instability in the price of oil over the preceding decade. This pattern of instability in oil price may be a product of peak oil. There is concern that if the economy was to improve, oil prices might return to pre-recession levels.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Fuel, Oil
In testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on 3 June 2008, former director of the CFTC Division of Trading & Markets (responsible for enforcement) Michael Greenberger specifically named the Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange, founded by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and British Petroleum as playing a key role in the speculative run-up of oil futures prices traded off the regulated futures exchanges in London and New York.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Fuel, Oil
The price of oil rose to $77 per barrel on 24 June 2010 as a cyclone begins to form in the south western Caribbean. The price for July 2010 was about $84–$90 per barrel of crude oil.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Fuel, Oil
Oil prices ended the year at $101.80, falling to $100.01 per barrel on 30 and 31 January 2011., then the Egyptian civil war broke out, as it theoretically put the use of Suez Canal at risk. Making matters worse, a gas pipeline to Jordan was blown up by saboteurs in the Sinai Peninsula. Prices remained steady until a dramatic drop began the 2010s oil glut.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Fuel, Uranium
Uranium traded at about $15–$20/kg since the late 1980s due to a 10-year secular bear market, with a 2001 low of just over $10/kg. The Uranium bubble of 2007 started in 2005 and began to accelerate badly with the 2006 flooding of the Cigar Lake Mine in Saskatchewan. Uranium prices peaked at roughly $300/kg in mid-2007, began to fall in mid-2008 and are now (end 2010) hovering about $100/kg. The stock prices of many uranium mining and exploration companies rose sharply, only to fall later in this boom.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Fuel, Uranium
There was also a brief resurgence of interest in nuclear power by the UK government between 2006 and 2008 due to the apparently insecure nature of Middle Eastern oil and after the closure of several old and economically/environmentally unviable coal fired power stations at the time. This helped the uranium price to rally at this date.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Gold
There was a sharp shift in the prices of gold and, to a lesser extent, both silver and platinum. Prices were at or near an all-time high in late 2010 due to people using the precious metals as a safe haven for their money as both the de facto value of cash and the stock market prices became more erratic in the late 2000s.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Gold
The period from 1999 to 2001 marked the "Brown Bottom" after a 20-year secular bear market at $252.90 per troy ounce. Prices increased rapidly from 1991, but the 1980 high was not exceeded until 3 January 2008 when a new maximum of $865.35 per troy ounce was set (a.m. London Gold Fixing). Another record price was set on 17 March 2008 at $1,023.50/oz ($32,900/kg) (am. London Gold Fixing). In the fall of 2009, gold markets experience renewed momentum upwards due to increased demand and a weakening US dollar. On 2 December 2009, gold passed the important barrier of US$1,200 per ounce to close at $1,215. Gold further rallied hitting new highs in May 2010 after the European Union debt crisis prompted further purchase of gold as a safe asset.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Gold
Since April 2001, the gold price has more than tripled in value against the US dollar, prompting speculation that the long secular bear market had ended and a bull market has returned. Gold's price finally stood at $1,350 per troy oz on 1 July 2010.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Gold
On 7 October 2010, it cost $1,364.60 per troy ounce, by 7 December reached the all time nominal historic high of $1,429.05 per troy ounce.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Silver
Silver cost $4 per troy ounce in 1992, started to rise rapidly in early 2004, reached $18 per troy oz by late 2007, slipped badly to $10 per troy oz during the Credit Crunch of 2008, but was selling in late 2009 and again in early 2010 at just under $18 per troy oz of metal. A year later, the Feb 2011 average was over $30 per oz of silver. On 29 April 2011, silver price reached $47.94 but fell by 12% on 2 May 2011. Prices range around $20–$25 in 2013-2014.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Platinum
Platinum first sold at about $350 per troy oz in 1992 and stayed rather flat save for a small dip to about $325 per troy oz in the mid-1990s and an equally small rise to about $375 per troy ounce in the Millennium period. It started to gain value in mid-2002 and grew on an experiential curve model as the prices then began to move sharply upwards. The high point was when it was trading for $2,200 per troy oz in early 2007. Prices declined to $800 per troy oz in January 2008, but the price had increased $1,600 per troy oz by early 2010.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Rhodium
Rhodium prices rose briefly during the millennium period due to increased demand, then collapsed to nearly their original 1995-7 starting price of $500/oz between 2002 and 2004.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Rhodium
Later on, the mysterious and unexpected Rhodium price bubble of 2008 suddenly increased prices from just over $500/oz in late 2006 to $9,000/oz-$9,500/oz in July 2008, only for the price then to tumble down only $1,000/oz in January 2009. Both an increase in demand in the American automotive industry, a herd instinct among investors, a then bullish market in rare metals and a rogue speculator or rogue speculators on Wall Street were all at least partly to blame for the sudden rise and fall in the rare metal's price.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Rhodium
Rhodium is mainly mined as a by-product of other metals such as platinum, so the production is based on production of other metals and therefore on demand of them, and less on the demand of rhodium.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Rhodium
Rhodium rose in price extremely sharply in January of 2021 and by mid February 2021 it had reached an all time high of $21,400 per Troy ounce making it the most valuable metal ever sold.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Palladium
Most palladium is used for catalytic converters in the automobile industry. It is also used for some medical, high grade steel, industrial, dental and electronic purposes.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Palladium
Palladium prices rose sharply during the millennium period due to increased demand, then collapsed to nearly their original starting price by the end 2002, only to start to rise less dramatically in the year 2006. Palladium prices in 1992 and 2002–04 was about $200/oz. It rapidly shot up to approximately $1,000/oz between 1999–2001 and collapsed to only $200/oz by late 2002, but is now just under $500/oz per of Palladium in 2010.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Palladium
In the run up to 2000, Russian supply of palladium to the global market was repeatedly delayed and disrupted because the export quota was not granted on time, for political reasons. The ensuing market panic drove the palladium price to an all-time high of $1,100 per troy ounce in January 2001. Around this time, the Ford Motor Company, fearing auto vehicle production disruption due to a possible palladium shortage, stockpiled large amounts of the metal purchased near the price high. When prices fell in early 2001, Ford lost nearly US$1 billion. World demand for palladium increased from 100 tons in 1990 to nearly 300 tons in 2000. The global production of palladium from mines was 222 tonnes in 2006 according to the USGS.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Precious metals, Rhenium
Because of the low availability relative to demand, rhenium is among the most expensive industrial metals, with an average price exceeding US$6,000 per kilogram, as of mid-2009. It first traded in 1928 at US$10,000 per kilogram of metal, but traded at US$250 per Troy ounce in mid-2010. It traded in July 2010, at about US$4,000–4,500/kg.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Aluminium
Aluminium is a widely used, mined, refined and trusted metal. The fortunes of this metal are linked to the rise and fall of the aircraft, electrical and automotive industries.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Aluminium
The price of aluminium was 80 US cents per lb in 1995 and 45 cents per lb in 1998 and hovered around this until the January 2003, when it started to rise to $1.50 per pound and in 2006 and $1.40 per lb in the December 2007. It collapsed down to a mere 60 cents per lb in the November 2008, but is now hovering at about $1.00 per lb, with a new April peak of $1.10 per pound of aluminium.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Nickel
The price of nickel boomed in the late 1990s, then imploded from around $51,000 /£36,700 per tonne in May 2007 to about $11,550/£8,300 per tonne in January 2009. Prices were only just starting to recover as of January 2010, but most of Australia's nickel mines had gone bankrupt by then. As the price for high grade nickel sulphate ore recovered in 2010, so did the Australian mining industry. Battery recycling has helped bring down both the nickel and cadmium prices.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Copper
It was also noticed that a copper price bubble was occurring at the same time as the oil bubble. Copper traded at about $2,500 per tonne from 1990 until 1999, when it fell to about $1,600. The price slump lasted until 2004 which saw a price surge that had copper reaching $9,000 per tonne in the May 2006, but it eventually fell down to $7,040 per tonne in early 2008. When the slump came, it hit some copper mining countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.) very hard.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Copper
Mining authorities announced on 10 December 2009, that the Dikulushi mine, which is situated in the D.R.C. 's Katanga Province, would close due to poor copper prices. It reopened in July 2010. The price rose again to over $10,000 in early 2011 but soon fell to below $8,000, around where it was fairly stable during 2012. Unfortunately the high prices have caused a heavy increase in theft of copper cables, causing interruptions in electrical supply. During 2013-2014 there has been a slow decline to below $7,000.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Iron
The prices of iron ore rose sharply from around $10 per tonne in 2003 to around $170 in April 2009 (transported to China). After that (written September 2013) the price was between $100 and $150; in September 2014 it started dropping precipitously, and was below $70 per ton in December 2014. The price of steel (at steel plants in Japan) has risen from around $300 per tonne in 2003 to $1,000 in late 2008, stabilizing at $800 in 2012.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Iron
The rise in prices made abandoned mines to reopen and new ones to open. It took some years to open mines, so some got a scaled up production around the time the prices dropped (drop partly caused by such production). Furthermore, started construction projects had to be finished so demand only reacted slowly to the rising prices.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Lead
The price of lead rose sharply in early 2007, then collapsed to nearly their original starting price by the end of the next year. Lead prices began to rise in early 2007 due to increased worldwide demand. Prices were about $1,200 per tonne of lead in the July, then rose to $2,220 per tonne by September and collapsed back down to $1,200 per tonne in the October of that year. Despite the bullish market condition, the price had collapsed by the July 2009 and was only worth about $1,400 per tonne of lead.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Lead
The lead and zinc markets became rather bearish for several months afterwards. Prices were hovering at between $1,770 and $2,175 per tonne as the markets became more bullish and increased prices after China's car scrapping scheme had caused a general upturn in lead, zinc, cadmium and aluminium production. By the June 2010, prices stood at only $870 per tonne, and were back to about $2,200 in the July 2010.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Zinc
The price of zinc rose sharply in early 2007 after a five-year secular bear market, then collapsed to nearly their original starting price by the end of the next year. Zinc also exhibited similar bullish trading patterns as most metals did since 2004, but with a different overall price.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Zinc
Zinc sale prices were 80 cents per pound in July 2008, which was typical of its 2004–2008 pricing levels. By January 2009 it had bottomed out and was worth 45 cents per lb. A spectacular bull market and increased Chinese interest in galvanised construction steel caused prices to top off at $1.20 per pound of metal by January 2010. It then quickly fell back to a routine 80 cents by July 2010.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Zinc
Zinc is popular in manufacturing and building; its ability to create corrosion-resistant zinc plating of steel (hot-dip galvanizing) is the major application for zinc. Other applications are in batteries and alloys, such as brass. A variety of zinc compounds are commonly used, such as zinc carbonate and zinc gluconate (as dietary supplements), zinc chloride (in deodorants), zinc pyrithione (anti-dandruff shampoos), zinc sulfide (in luminescent paints), and zinc methyl or zinc diethyl in the organic laboratory.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Neodymium
Neodymium, a fairly rare metal which is used in high grade magnets, saw its prices rise due to increased demand, as were typical of this general market trend. The average price was $16.10 per kg in November and December 2009, but it began trading in June 2010 at $20–$45 per kg.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Neodymium
Neodymium serves as a constituent of high strength neodymium magnets, which are widely used in loudspeakers, computer hard drives, high power-per-weight electric motors (e.g. for those in hybrid cars) and in high efficiency generators (such as aircraft and wind turbine generators).


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Neodymium
There was also a strong resurgence of interest in wind farms by the UK government between 2008 and 2010 due to the continuing fears of insecurity in Middle Eastern oil supplies to the industrialised nations and after the closure of several old and economically/environmentally unviable coal-fuelled power stations earlier that decade. This helped the price to rally in 2010.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Other metals
The cadmium, tantalum, manganese, thulium, tin, chromium, indium, columbium/niobium, cobalt, molybdenum and vanadium prices rose sharply in early 2007, then collapsed to nearly their original starting price by the end of the next year due to uncertainty about supplies matching the demand, especially those of the BRIC countries' electronics industries in iPods, computers, mobile phones, et al.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Other metals
Niobium is used in the steel of gas pipe lines due to the alloy's high strength and low corrosion rate.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Other industrial metals, Other metals
Battery recycling has helped bring down both the nickel and cadmium prices. About 86% of all cadmium production was used in batteries during 2009. The rapid growth of wind farms and heavy duty magnets has made neodymium prices rally again and both Brazil and China's renewed interest in high grade steel has improved the Vanadium price recently. The way these metal's prices rose and fell due to increased demand, were typical of this general market trend.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Chemicals, Sulphuric acid
In 2002, 95% pure sulphuric acid cost £55 and 90% acid cost £40 per tonne. Due to floods in Poland and increased demand in China, the acid's price soared to $329/tonne in May 2008, from just $90/tonne in October 2007. It has become steadily cheaper since the start of 2010.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Chemicals, Sulphuric acid
Most industrial chemicals exhibited similar price trends due to bad weather in the EU and USA along with increased demand by the BRIC nations.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Non metals, Chlorine
Chlorine products such as P.V.C. plastics, caustic soda, industrial paper bleach and ordinary household and industrial bleachs saw their prices rise sharply in 2008 as a result of volatility on the world's chlorine market.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Non metals, Chlorine
As a result of fight of supply and high operating rates in May 1997, two chlorine producers took the bold initiative of calling for an average price rise of $25 per short ton. Other producers were considering bringing the total price increase for the 1997 product year to date of up to $80 per short and fob ton, from $45–$50 per short and fob ton in May 1996. This occurred as both rapidly ascending demand from the vinyl polymer chain market and the unusually strong seasonal demand and no new production capacity on the immediate horizon coincided. The price increase had its firm foundations in the incumbent bullish market dynamics of the mid-2000s. Occidental Chemical Corporation suggested a minor rise as other firms took a "wait-and-see approach" and Russia raised production slightly to ease the cost of domestic bleach and swimming pool chloro-tablet costs.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Non metals, Chlorine
Chlorine prices rose in May 2005 as both growing energy costs, shrinking supply and high market tariffs in the EU, NAFTA and Latin America, the increased use of chlorine-based chemicals for the aquatics industry. The price of chlorine caustic was $350 per dry short ton, up from $100 last March. Chlorine was priced at $330 per dry short ton, up $130 on 2008's price of $200.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Non metals, Chlorine
The gas's price steadily increased throughout 2007 and early 2008 as demand for P.V.C. and some metals like copper, Neodymium and Tantalum rose due to the increased growth of the BRIC countries demand for electrical goods.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Non metals, Chlorine
America's chlorine prices rose suddenly from about $125–$150 per ton fob between June and August 2009 months on a sharp rise in chlor-alkali production and capacity cuts after a year in which production quotes largely stay flat. The spot price surged more than 300% to about $475–$525 ton fob in August 2009. Both Russia and the European Union were also increasing chlorine production to stabilise world prices.


2000s commodities boom, Boom, Non metals, Chlorine
Non discounted American chlorine was priced at $390–410 short ton and discounted prices stood at $300 per short ton between November 2009 and February 2010. As the European chlorine production spiked in November to a daily output of 26,971 tonnes, before falling to 23,667 short ton in December due to the Christmas and New Year holidays. Production was about European production was 25.8% higher than December 2008 levels.


2000s commodities boom, Late-2000s economic fallout
Many firms, individuals, and hedge funds went bankrupt or suffered heavy losses due to purchasing commodities at high prices only to see their values decline sharply in mid to late 2008. Many manufacturing companies were also crippled by the rising cost of oil and other commodities such as transition metals.


2000s commodities boom, Late-2000s economic fallout
The food and fuel crises were both discussed at the 34th G8 summit in July 2008.


2000s commodities boom, Late-2000s economic fallout, The 2008 price glitch
In the second half of 2008, the prices of most commodities fell dramatically on expectations of diminished demand in the world recession and credit crunch. Prices began to rise again in late 2009 to mid-2010 (as supply could not meet demand), triggering another round of boom that lasted until 2014, when fossil fuels and metals prices collapsed in a far more prolonged fashion that looks to far eclipse that of 2008.


2000s commodities boom, Late-2000s economic fallout, Mine closures
The heavy price volatility caused a sudden boom then bust in the mining industry across the world, e.g. in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Canada, China, Sweden  and Australia. The $900,000,000 Tenke Fungurume copper-cobalt mining project in the Democratic Republic of Congo was cleared in February 2008 for building to start in a years time and then Luanshya Copper Mine in Zambia closed on 6 March 2009. Zimbabwe and Australia also saw nickel and copper mines open close during this time. China opened several new coal mines in Qinghai province during the years 2007 and 2008.


2000s commodities boom, Late-2000s economic fallout, Opinions on the commodities bubble
Coincidentally, long-only commodity index funds started just before the bubbles, became popular at the same time – by one estimate investment increased from $90 billion in 2006 to $200 billion at the end of 2007, while commodity prices increased 71% – which raised concern as to whether these index funds caused the commodity bubble. The empirical research has been mixed.


2000s commodities boom, Late-2000s economic fallout, Opinions on the commodities bubble
Commodities have historically been regarded as wildly volatile and risky, but since 2006, crude oil, gold, copper, silver, platinum, cocoa, and grains have soared, hitting record highs, and have trounced returns in the mismanaged G-7 stock markets ... A remarkable run-up in prices of wheat, corn, oilseeds, rice, and dairy products, along with sharply higher energy prices, have been blamed on supply shortfalls, strong demand for bio-fuels, and an inflow of $150 billion from investment funds. From a year ago, Chicago wheat futures have soared +120%, corn +20%, and soybeans are +80% higher.


2000s commodities boom, Late-2000s economic fallout, Opinions on the commodities bubble
Rough rice is up 55%, and platinum touched $2,000 /oz, up 80% from a year ago, while US cocoa futures hit a 24-year high ... Fund managers are pouring money into commodities across the board as a hedge against the explosive growth of the world's money supply, and competitive currency devaluations engineered by central banks.


2000s commodities boom, Late-2000s economic fallout, Opinions on the commodities bubble
Economist James D. Hamilton has argued that the increase in oil prices in the period of 2007 to 2008 was a significant cause of the recession. He evaluated several different approaches to estimating the impact of oil price shocks on the economy, including some methods that had previously shown a decline in the relationship between oil price shocks and the overall economy. All of these methods "support a common conclusion; had there been no increase in oil prices between 2007:Q3 and 2008:Q2, the US economy would not have been in a recession over the period 2007:Q4 through 2008:Q3".


2000s commodities boom, Late-2000s economic fallout, Opinions on the commodities bubble
Hamilton's own model, a time-series econometric forecast based on data up to 2003, showed that the decline in GDP could have been successfully predicted to almost its full extent given knowledge of the price of oil. The results imply that oil prices were entirely responsible for the recession; however, Hamilton himself acknowledged that this was probably not the case but maintained that it showed that oil price increases made a significant contribution to the downturn in economic growth.


2000s commodities boom, Aftermath
In the mid-2010s, China experienced a stock market crash and economic slowdown as it moved from manufacturing to a services industry. Leftist pink tide governments in Latin America who created unsustainable policies based on China's commodity trade in the 2000s began to experience economic difficulties and began to experience a political decline as income diminished due to the end of the commodities boom.


2000s commodities boom, Aftermath
This downturn in commodities prices also had an important effect on non-left aligned countries in Latin America such as Mexico, Colombia, Peru or Chile, whose economies are largely dependent on mineral resource extraction by foreign companies, plummeting the economic growth in those years. However, the absence of economic sanctions helped for the economic recovery in these countries when oil prices stabilized, unlike Venezuelan economy which never recovered. As oil prices declined, Russia also had its economy falter as a result of mismanagement.


2000s energy crisis
From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation-adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under US$25/barrel in 2008 dollars. During 2003, the price rose above $30, reached $60 by 11 August 2005, and peaked at $147.30 in July 2008. Commentators attributed these price increases to many factors, including Middle East tension, soaring demand from China, the falling value of the U.S. dollar, reports showing a decline in petroleum reserves, worries over peak oil, and financial speculation.


2000s energy crisis
For a time, geopolitical events and natural disasters had strong short-term effects on oil prices, such as North Korean missile tests, the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon, worries over Iranian nuclear plans in 2006, Hurricane Katrina, and various other factors. By 2008, such pressures appeared to have an insignificant impact on oil prices given the onset of the global recession. The recession caused demand for energy to shrink in late 2008, with oil prices collapsing from the July 2008 high of $147 to a December 2008 low of $32.


2000s energy crisis
However, it has been disputed that the laws of supply and demand of oil could have been responsible for an almost 80% drop in the oil price within a 6-month period. Oil prices stabilized by August 2009 and generally remained in a broad trading range between $70 and $120 through November 2014, before returning to 2003 pre-crisis levels by early 2016, as US production increased dramatically. The United States went on to become the largest oil producer by 2018.


2000s energy crisis, New inflation-adjusted peaks
The price of crude oil in 2003 traded in a range between $20–$30/bbl. Between 2003 and July 2008, prices steadily rose, reaching $100/bbl in late 2007, coming close to the previous inflation-adjusted peak set in 1980. A steep rise in the price of oil in 2008 – also mirrored by other commodities – culminated in an all-time high of $147.27 during trading on 11 July 2008, more than a third above the previous inflation-adjusted high.


2000s energy crisis, New inflation-adjusted peaks
High oil prices and economic weakness contributed to a demand contraction in 2007–2008. In the United States, gasoline consumption declined by 0.4% in 2007, then fell by 0.5% in the first two months of 2008 alone. Record-setting oil prices in the first half of 2008 and economic weakness in the second half of the year prompted a 1.2 Mbbl (190,000 m3)/day contraction in US consumption of petroleum products, representing 5.8% of total US consumption, the largest annual decline since 1980 at the climax of the 1979 energy crisis.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand
World crude oil demand grew an average of 1.76% per year from 1994 to 2006, with a high of 3.4% in 2003–2004. World demand for oil is projected to increase 37% over 2006 levels by 2030, according to the 2007 U.S. Energy Information Administration's (EIA) annual report. In 2007, the EIA expected demand to reach an ultimate high of 118 million barrels per day (18.8×10^6 m3/d), from 2006's 86 million barrels (13.7×10^6 m3), driven in large part by the transportation sector.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand
A 2008 report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that although drops in petroleum demand due to high prices have been observed in developed countries and are expected to continue, a 3.7 percent rise in demand by 2013 is predicted in developing countries. This is projected to cause a net rise in global petroleum demand during that period.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand
Transportation consumes the largest proportion of energy, and has seen the largest growth in demand in recent decades. This growth has largely come from new demand for cars and other personal-use vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. This sector also has the highest consumption rates, accounting for approximately 55% of oil use worldwide as documented in the Hirsch report and 68.9% of the oil used in the United States in 2006. Cars and trucks are predicted to cause almost 75% of the increase in oil consumption by India and China between 2001 and 2025. In 2008, auto sales in China were expected to grow by as much as 15–20 percent, resulting in part from economic growth rates of over 10 percent for five years in a row.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand
Demand growth is highest in the developing world, but the United States is the world's largest consumer of petroleum. Between 1995 and 2005, US consumption grew from 17.7 million barrels (2,810,000 m3) a day to 20.7 million barrels (3,290,000 m3) a day, an increase of 3 million barrels (480,000 m3) a day. China, by comparison, increased consumption from 3.4 million barrels (540,000 m3) a day to 7 million barrels (1,100,000 m3) a day, an increase of 3.6 million barrels (570,000 m3) a day, in the same time frame. Per capita, annual consumption is 24.85 barrels (3.951 m3) by people in the US, 1.79 barrels (0.285 m3) in China, and 0.79 barrels (0.126 m3) in India.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand
As countries develop, industry, rapid urbanization and higher living standards drive up energy use, most often of oil. Thriving economies such as China and India are quickly becoming large oil consumers. China has seen oil consumption grow by 8% yearly since 2002, doubling from 1996–2006.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand
Although swift continued growth in China is often predicted, others predict that China's export-dominated economy will not continue such growth trends due to wage and price inflation and reduced demand from the US. India's oil imports are expected to more than triple from 2005 levels by 2020, rising to 5 million barrels per day (790×10^3 m3/d).


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand
Another large factor on petroleum demand has been human population growth. Because world population grew faster than oil production, production per capita peaked in 1979 (preceded by a plateau during the period of 1973–1979). The world’s population in 2030 is expected to be double that of 1980.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand, Role of fuel subsidies
State fuel subsidies shielded consumers in many nations from higher market prices, but many of these subsidies were reduced or removed as the governmental cost rose.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand, Role of fuel subsidies
China became the latest Asian nation to curb energy subsidies last week after hiking retail petrol and diesel prices as much as 18 percent... Elsewhere in Asia, Malaysia has hiked fuel prices by 41 percent and Indonesia by around 29 percent, while Taiwan and India have also raised their energy costs.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand, Role of fuel subsidies
Countries like China and India, along with Gulf nations whose retail oil prices are kept below global prices, contributed 61 percent of the increase in global consumption of crude oil from 2000 to 2006, according to JPMorgan.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand, Role of fuel subsidies
Other than Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, most Asian nations subsidize domestic fuel prices. The more countries subsidize them, the less likely high oil prices will have any affect  [sic] in reducing overall demand, forcing governments in weaker financial situations to surrender first and stop their subsidies.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand, Role of fuel subsidies
That is what happened over the past two weeks. Indonesia, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, and Malaysia have either raised regulated fuel prices or pledged that they will.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Demand, Role of fuel subsidies
The Economist reported: "Half of the world's population enjoys fuel subsidies. This estimate, from Morgan Stanley, implies that almost a quarter of the world's petrol is sold at less than the market price." U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman stated that around 30 million barrels per day (4,800,000 m3/d) of oil consumption (over a third of the global total) was subsidized.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Supply
An important contributor to the price increase was the slowdown in oil supply growth, which has been a general trend since oil production surpassed new discoveries in 1980. The likelihood that global oil production will decline at some point, leading to lower supply, is a long-term fundamental cause of rising prices. Although there is contention about the exact time at which global production will peak, a majority of industry participants acknowledge that the concept of a production peak is valid. However, some commentators argued that global warming awareness and new energy sources would limit demand before the effects of supply could, suggesting that reserve depletion would be a non-issue.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Supply
A large factor in the lower supply growth of petroleum has been that oil's historically high ratio of Energy Returned on Energy Invested is in significant decline. Petroleum is a limited resource, and the remaining accessible reserves are consumed more rapidly each year. Remaining reserves are increasingly difficult to extract and therefore more expensive. Eventually, reserves will only be economically feasible to extract at extremely high prices.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Supply
Even if total oil supply does not decline, increasing numbers of experts believe the easily accessible sources of light sweet crude are almost exhausted and in the future the world will depend on more-expensive unconventional oil reserves and heavy crude oil, as well as renewable energy sources. It is thought by many, including energy economists such as Matthew Simmons, that prices could continue to rise indefinitely until a new market equilibrium is reached at which point supply satisfies worldwide demand.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Supply
Timothy Kailing, in a 2008 Journal of Energy Security article, pointed out the difficulty of increasing production in mature petroleum regions, even with vastly increased investment in exploration and production. By looking at the historical response of production to variation in drilling effort, he claimed that very little increase of production could be attributed to increased drilling. This was due to a tight quantitative relationship of diminishing returns with increasing drilling effort: As drilling effort increased, the energy obtained per active drill rig was reduced according to a severely diminishing power law. This analysis suggested that even an enormous increase of drilling effort was unlikely to lead to significantly increased oil and gas production in a mature petroleum region like the United States.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Supply
A prominent example of investment in non-conventional sources is seen in the Canadian oil sands. They are a far less cost-efficient source of heavy, low-grade oil than conventional crude; but when oil trades above $60/bbl, the tar sands become attractive to exploration and production companies. While Canada's oil sands region is estimated to contain as much "heavy" oil as all the world's reserves of "conventional" oil, efforts to economically exploit these resources lag behind the increasing demand of recent years.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Supply
Until 2008, CERA (a consulting company wholly owned by energy consultants IHS Energy) did not believe this would be such an immediate problem. However, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Daniel Yergin, previously known for his quotes that the price of oil would soon return down to "normal", amended the company's position on 7 May 2008 to predict that oil would reach $150 during 2008, due to tightness of supply. This reversal of opinion was significant, as CERA, among other consultancies, provided price projections that were used by many official bodies to plan long-term strategy in respect of energy mix and price.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Supply
Other major energy organisations, such as the International Energy Agency (IEA), had already been much less optimistic in their assessments for some time. In 2008, the IEA drastically accelerated its prediction of production decline for existing oilfields, from 3.7% a year to 6.7% a year, based largely on better accounting methods, including actual research of individual oil field production throughout the world.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Supply
Terrorist and insurgent groups have increasingly targeted oil and gas installations, and succeeded in stopping a substantial volume of exports during the 2003–2008 height of the American occupation of Iraq. Such attacks are sometimes perpetrated by militias in regions where oil wealth has produced few tangible benefits for the local citizenry, as is the case in the Niger Delta.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Supply
Many factors have resulted in possible and/or actual concerns about the reduced supply of oil. The post-9/11 war on terror, labor strikes, hurricane threats to oil platforms, fires and terrorist threats at refineries, and other short-lived problems are not solely responsible for the higher prices. Such problems do push prices higher temporarily, but have not historically been fundamental to long-term price increases.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Investment/speculation demand
Investment demand for oil occurs when investors purchase futures contracts to buy a commodity at a set price for future delivery. "Speculators are not buying any actual crude. ... When [the] contracts mature, they either settle them with a cash payment or sell them on to genuine consumers."


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Investment/speculation demand
Several claims have been made implicating financial speculation as a major cause of the price increases. In May 2008 the transport chief for Germany's Social Democrats estimated that 25 percent of the rise to $135 a barrel had nothing to do with underlying supply and demand. Testimony was given to a U.S. Senate committee in May indicating that "demand shock" from "institutional investors" had increased by 848 million barrels (134,800,000 m3) over the previous five years, almost as much as the increased physical demand from China (920 million barrels (146,000,000 m3)).


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Investment/speculation demand
The influence of institutional investors, such as sovereign wealth funds, was also discussed in June 2008, when Lehman Brothers suggested that price increases were related to increases in exposure to commodities by such investors. It claimed that "for every $100 million in new inflows, the price of West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, increased by 1.6%."


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Investment/speculation demand
Also in May 2008, an article in The Economist pointed out that oil futures transactions on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), nearly mirrored the price of oil increases for a several-year period; however, the article conceded that the increased investment might be following rising prices, rather than causing them, and that the nickel commodity market had halved in value between May 2007 and May 2008 despite significant speculative interest. It also reminded readers that "Investment can flood into the oil market without driving up prices because speculators are not buying any actual crude...


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Investment/speculation demand
no oil is hoarded or somehow kept off the market," and that prices of some commodities which are not openly traded have actually risen faster than oil prices. In June 2008, OPEC's Secretary General Abdallah Salem el-Badri stated that current world consumption of oil at 87 million bpd was far exceeded by the "paper market" for oil, which equaled about 1.36 billion bpd, or more than 15 times the actual market demand.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Investment/speculation demand
An interagency task force on commodities markets was formed in the U.S. government to investigate the claims of speculators' influence on the petroleum market. The task force concluded in July 2008 that "market fundamentals" such as supply and demand provided the best explanations for oil price increases, and that increased speculation was not statistically correlated with the increases. The report also noted that increased prices with an elastic supply would cause increases in petroleum inventories. As inventories actually declined, the task force concluded that market pressures were most likely to blame. Other commodities that were not subject to market speculation (such as coal, steel, and onions) saw similar price increases over the same time period.


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Investment/speculation demand
In June 2008 U.S. energy secretary Samuel Bodman said that insufficient oil production, not financial speculation, was driving rising crude prices. He said that oil production had not kept pace with growing demand. "In the absence of any additional crude supply, for every 1% of crude demand, we will expect a 20% increase in price in order to balance the market," Bodman said. This contradicted earlier statements by Iranian OPEC governor Mohammad-Ali Khatibi indicating that the oil market was saturated and that an increase in production announced by Saudi Arabia was "wrong".


2000s energy crisis, Possible causes, Investment/speculation demand
In September 2008, Masters Capital Management released a study of the oil market, concluding that speculation did significantly impact the price. The study stated that over $60 billion was invested in oil during the first six months of 2008, helping drive the price per barrel from $95 to $147, and that by the beginning of September, $39 billion had been withdrawn by speculators, causing prices to fall.


2000s energy crisis, Effects
There is debate over what the effects of the 2000s energy crisis will be over the long term. Some speculated that an oil-price spike could create a recession comparable to those that followed the 1973 and 1979 energy crises or a potentially worse situation such as a global oil crash. Increased petroleum prices are reflected in a vast number of products derived from petroleum, as well as those transported using petroleum fuels.


2000s energy crisis, Effects
Political scientist George Friedman has postulated that if high prices for oil and food persist, they will define the fourth distinct geopolitical regime since the end of World War II, the previous three being the Cold War, the 1989–2001 period in which economic globalization was primary, and the post-9/11 "war on terror".


2000s energy crisis, Effects
In addition to high oil prices, from year 2000 volatility in the price of oil has increased notably and this volatility has been suggested to be a factor in the financial crisis which began in 2008.


2000s energy crisis, Effects
The perceived increase in oil price differs internationally according to currency market fluctuations and the purchasing power of currencies. For example, excluding changes in relative purchasing power of various currencies, from 1 January 2002 to 1 January 2008:


2000s energy crisis, Effects
On average, oil prices roughly quadrupled for these areas, triggering widespread protest activities. A similar price surge for petroleum-based fertilizers contributed to the 2007–08 world food price crisis and further unrest.


2000s energy crisis, Effects
In 2008, a report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates stated that 2007 had been the year of peak gasoline usage in the United States, and that record energy prices would cause an "enduring shift" in energy consumption practices. According to the report, in April gas consumption had been lower than a year before for the sixth straight month, suggesting 2008 would be the first year U.S. gasoline usage declined in 17 years. The total miles driven in the U.S. began declining in 2006.


2000s energy crisis, Effects
In the United States, oil prices contributed to inflation averaging 3.3% in 2005–2006, significantly above the average of 2.5% in the preceding 10-year period. As a result, during this period the Federal Reserve steadily raised interest rates to curb inflation.


2000s energy crisis, Effects
High oil prices typically affect less-affluent countries first, particularly the developing world with less discretionary income. There are fewer vehicles per capita, and oil is often used for electricity generation as well as private transport. The World Bank has looked more deeply at the effect of oil prices in the developing countries. One analysis found that in South Africa a 125 percent increase in the price of crude oil and refined petroleum reduces employment and GDP by approximately 2 percent, and reduces household consumption by approximately 7 percent, affecting mainly the poor.


2000s energy crisis, Effects
OPEC's annual oil export revenue surged to a new record in 2008, estimated around US$800 billion.


2000s energy crisis, Forecasted prices and trends
According to informed observers, OPEC, meeting in early December 2007, seemed to desire a high but stable price that would deliver substantial needed income to the oil-producing states, but avoid prices so high that they would negatively impact the economies of the oil-consuming nations. A range of US$70–80 per barrel was suggested by some analysts to be OPEC's goal.


2000s energy crisis, Forecasted prices and trends
In November 2008, as prices fell below $60 a barrel, the IEA warned that falling prices could lead to both a lack of investment in new sources of oil and a fall in production of more-expensive unconventional reserves such as the oil sands of Canada. The IEA's chief economist warned, "Oil supplies in the future will come more and more from smaller and more-difficult fields," meaning that future production requires more investment every year.


2000s energy crisis, Forecasted prices and trends
A lack of new investment in such projects, which had already been observed, could eventually cause new and more-severe supply issues than had been experienced in the early 2000s according to the IEA. Because the sharpest production declines had been seen in developed countries, the IEA warned that the greatest growth in production was expected to come from smaller projects in OPEC states, raising their world production share from 44% in 2008 to a projected 51% in 2030. The IEA also pointed out that demand from the developed world may have also peaked, so that future demand growth was likely to come from developing nations such as China, contributing 43%, and India and the Middle East, each about 20%.


2000s energy crisis, End of the crisis
By the beginning of September 2008, prices had fallen to $110. OPEC Secretary General El-Badri said that the organization intended to cut output by about 500,000 barrels (79,000 m3) a day, which he saw as correcting a "huge oversupply" due to declining economies and a stronger U.S. dollar. On 10 September, the International Energy Agency (IEA) lowered its 2009 demand forecast by 140,000 barrels (22,000 m3) to 87.6 million barrels (13,930,000 m3) a day.


2000s energy crisis, End of the crisis
As many countries throughout the world entered an economic recession in the third quarter of 2008 and the global banking system came under severe strain, oil prices continued to slide. In November and December, global demand growth fell, and U.S. oil demand fell an estimated 10% overall from early October to early November 2008 (accompanying a significant drop in auto sales).


2000s energy crisis, End of the crisis
In their December meeting, OPEC members agreed to reduce their production by 2.2 million barrels (350,000 m3) per day, and said their resolution to reduce production in October had an 85% compliance rate.


2000s energy crisis, End of the crisis
Petroleum prices fell below $35 in February 2009, but by May 2009 had risen back to mid-November 2008 levels around $55. The global economic downturn left oil-storage facilities with more oil than in any year since 1990, when Iraq's invasion of Kuwait upset the market.


2000s energy crisis, End of the crisis
In early 2011, crude oil rebounded above US$100/bbl due to the Arab Spring protests in the Middle East and North Africa, including the 2011 Egyptian revolution, the 2011 Libyan civil war, and steadily tightening international sanctions against Iran. The oil price fluctuated around $100 through early 2014.


2000s energy crisis, End of the crisis
By 2014–2015, the world oil market was again steadily oversupplied, led by an unexpected near-doubling in U.S. oil production from 2008 levels due to substantial improvements in shale "fracking" technology. By January 2016, the OPEC Reference Basket fell to US$22.48/bbl – less than one-sixth of its record from July 2008 ($140.73), and back below the April 2003 starting point ($23.27) of its historic run-up. OPEC production was poised to rise further with the lifting of Iranian sanctions, at a time when markets already appeared to be oversupplied by at least 2 million barrels per day.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations
Attempts to mitigate the impacts of oil price increases include:


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations
In mainstream economic theory, a free market rations an increasingly scarce commodity by increasing its price. A higher price should stimulate producers to produce more, and consumers to consume less, while possibly shifting to substitutes. The first three mitigation strategies in the above list are, therefore, in keeping with mainstream economic theory, as government policies can affect the supply and demand for petroleum as well as the availability of substitutes.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations
In contrast, the last type of strategy in the list (attempting to shield consumers from rising prices) would seem to work against classical economic theory, by encouraging consumers to overconsume the scarce quantity, thus making it even scarcer. To avoid creating outright shortages, attempts at price control may require some sort of rationing scheme.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Alternative propulsion, Alternative fuels
Economists say that the substitution effect will spur demand for alternate fossil fuels, such as coal or liquefied natural gas and for renewable energy, such as solar power, wind power, and advanced biofuels.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Alternative propulsion, Alternative fuels
For example, China and India are currently heavily investing in natural gas and coal liquefaction facilities. Nigeria is working on burning natural gas to produce electricity instead of simply flaring the gas, where all non-emergency gas flaring will be forbidden after 2008. Outside the U.S., more than 50% of oil is consumed for stationary, non-transportation purposes such as electricity production where it is relatively easy to substitute natural gas for oil.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Alternative propulsion, Alternative fuels
Oil companies including the supermajors have begun to fund research into alternative fuel. BP has invested half a billion dollars for research over the next several years. The motivations behind such moves are to acquire the patent rights as well as understanding the technology so vertical integration of the future industry could be achieved.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Alternative propulsion, Electric propulsion
The rise in oil prices caused renewed interest in electric cars, with several new models hitting the market, both hybrid and purely electric. The most successful among the former being the Toyota Prius and among the latter the cars of companies like Tesla. Several countries also incentivized the use of electric cars through tax-breaks or subsidies or by building charging stations.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Alternative propulsion, High speed rail
In a similar vein as the original TGV that was switched from gas turbine to electric propulsion after the 1973 oil crisis, several countries have renewed and increased their efforts for electric propulsion in their rail systems, specifically high-speed rail. In the time since 2003, the global High speed rail network almost doubled and there are plans globally that amount to the network being doubled again within the next ten to twenty years, based on current constructions. China in particular went from having no high-speed rail whatsoever in 2003 to having the longest network in the world in 2015.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Bioplastics and bioasphalt
Another major factor in petroleum demand is the widespread use of petroleum products such as plastic. These could be partially replaced by bioplastics, which are derived from renewable plant feedstocks such as vegetable oil, cornstarch, pea starch, or microbiota. They are used either as a direct replacement for traditional plastics or as blends with traditional plastics. The most common end use market is for packaging materials. Japan has also been a pioneer in bioplastics, incorporating them into electronics and automobiles.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Bioplastics and bioasphalt
Bioasphalt can also be used as a replacement of petroleum asphalt.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, United States Strategic Fuel Reserve
The United States Strategic Petroleum Reserve could, on its own, supply current U.S. demand for about a month in the event of an emergency, unless it were also destroyed or inaccessible in the emergency. This could potentially be the case if a major storm were to hit the Gulf of Mexico, where the reserve is located.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, United States Strategic Fuel Reserve
While total consumption has increased, the western economies are less reliant on oil than they were twenty-five years ago, due both to substantial growth in productivity and the growth of sectors of the economy with little oil dependence such as finance and banking, retail, etc. The decline of heavy industry and manufacturing in most developed countries has reduced the amount of oil per unit GDP; however, since these items are imported anyway, there is less change in the oil dependence of industrialized countries than the direct consumption statistics indicate.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Fuel taxes
One recourse used and discussed in the past to avoid the negative impacts of oil shocks in the many developed countries which have high fuel taxes has been to temporarily or permanently suspend these taxes as fuel costs rise.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Fuel taxes
France, Italy, and the Netherlands lowered taxes in 2000 in response to protests over high prices, but other European nations resisted this option because public service finance is partly based on energy taxes. The issue came up again in 2004, when oil reached $40 a barrel causing a meeting of 25 EU finance ministers to lower economic growth forecasts for that year. Because of budget deficits in several countries, they decided to pressure OPEC to lower prices instead of lowering taxes.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Fuel taxes
In 2007, European truckers, farmers, and fishermen again raised concerns over record oil prices cutting into their earnings, hoping to have taxes lowered. In the United Kingdom, where fuel taxes were raised in October and were scheduled to rise again in April 2008, there was talk of protests and roadblocks if the tax issue was not addressed. On 1 April 2008, a 25 yen per liter fuel tax in Japan was allowed to lapse temporarily.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Fuel taxes
This method of softening price shocks is even less viable to countries with much lower gas taxes, such as the United States.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Fuel taxes
Locally decreasing fuel tax can decrease fuel prices, but globally prices are set by supply and demand, and therefore fuel tax decreases may have no effect on fuel prices, and fuel tax increases might actually decrease fuel prices by reducing demand. But this depends on the price elasticity of demand for fuel which is -0.09 to -0.31, meaning that fuel is a relatively inelastic commodity, i.e. increasing or decreasing prices have overall only a small effect on demand and therefore price change.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Demand management
Transportation demand management has the potential to be an effective policy response to fuel shortages or price increases and has a greater probability of long term benefits than other mitigation options.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Demand management
There are major differences in energy consumption for private transport between cities; an average U.S. urban dweller uses 24 times more energy annually for private transport as a Chinese urban resident. These differences cannot be explained by wealth alone but are closely linked to the rates of walking, cycling, and public transport use and to enduring features of the city including urban density and urban design.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Demand management
For individuals, telecommuting provides alternatives to daily commuting and long-distance air travel for business. Technologies for telecommuting, such as videoconferencing, e-mail, and corporate wikis, continue to improve, in keeping with the overall improvement in information technologies ascribed to Moore's law. As the cost of moving human workers continues to rise, while the cost of moving information electronically continues to fall, presumably market forces should cause more people to substitute virtual travel for physical travel.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Demand management
Matthew Simmons explicitly calls for "liberating the workforce" by changing the corporate mindset from paying people to show up physically to work every day, to paying them instead for the work they do, from any location. This would allow many more information workers to work from home either part-time or full-time, or from satellite offices or Internet cafes near to where they live, freeing them from long daily commutes to central offices. However, even full adoption of telecommuting by all eligible workers might only decrease energy consumption by about 1% (with present energy savings estimated at 0.01–0.04%). By comparison, a 20% increase in automobile fuel economy would save 5.4%.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Political action against market speculation
The price rises of mid-2008 led to a variety of proposals to change the rules governing energy markets and energy futures markets, in order to prevent rises due to market speculation.


2000s energy crisis, Possible mitigations, Political action against market speculation
On 26 July 2008, the United States House of Representatives passed the Energy Markets Emergency Act of 2008 (H.R. 6377), which directs the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) "to utilize all its authority, including its emergency powers, to curb immediately the role of excessive speculation in any contract market within the jurisdiction and control of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, on or through which energy futures or swaps are traded, and to eliminate excessive speculation, price distortion, sudden or unreasonable fluctuations or unwarranted changes in prices, or other unlawful activity causing major market disturbances that prevent the market from accurately reflecting the forces of supply and demand for energy commodities."


2000s in Algeria
The 2000s in Algeria emerged from the 'Black Decade' of the 1990s. The 'Black Decade' was characterised by a civil war beginning in 1991 and ending at the beginning of the following decade in 2002. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who is accredited with ending the civil war, continued to be in power throughout the 2000s following his election in 1999. Despite being in power for 20 years and being Algeria's longest running president, Bouteflika's politics have been widely opposed and contested, with accusations from the BBC “of widespread corruption and state repression”.


2000s in Algeria
In April 2019 Bouteflika officially resigned from his position as president after months of public protest and loss of the army's support. The 82 Year old President was widely considered unfit for the role after experiencing a stroke in 2013. His resignation was reported by the BBC to have been met with "huge celebrations".


2000s in Algeria
In the post civil war period of the 2000s ‘Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’ (‘AQIM’), an Algerian Islamic extremist group, rose to prominence and was responsible for a number of acts of terrorism in Algeria and the Northern African region. This was relevant in relation to world politics at the time as it tied in with the USA's ‘War on Terror’, and lead to cooperation between the two nations in global counterterrorism attempts.


2000s in Algeria
The 2000s in Algeria was also impacted by the 2001 'Black Spring’, an uprising of the native Berber people of the North African region, as well as the 2001 Algerian floods which destroyed infrastructure, displaced families and resulted in a significant death toll.


2000s in Algeria, End of the Civil War
The civil war officially ended when peace was established in 2002. This came after the presidential elections of April 1999 and the controversial election of Abdelaziz Bouteflika who according to Journalist Ramy Allahoum “spent his first years as president trying to end the civil war”. Bouteflika successfully achieved this in the first half of the decade by offering an official amnesty to the Islamic Guerrilla fighters who had fought in opposition to the government during the war. This amnesty was offered only to those who had been accused of non-violent crimes, and did not include those who had engaged in crimes such as rape, murder or bombing.


2000s in Algeria, End of the Civil War, Legislation
The 'Civil Concord' law was adopted by nationwide referendum in September 1999 as a means of ending the war and establishing the proposed amnesty for 'Islamic Salvation Front' ('FIS') fighters. Although highly favoured by voters, at the time the law's effectiveness was criticised by certain non-government organisations. The ICG stated the policy had "failed" in their 2001 report 'The Civil Concord: a peace initiative wasted'. A later report published in 2008, after the civil war had ended, by the Library of Congress: Federal Research Division states that "The reconciliation by no means ended all violence, but it reduced violence to manageable levels".


2000s in Algeria, End of the Civil War, Legislation
In 2005 the ‘Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation’ further enforced the amnesty agreement for "all but the most violent participants in the Islamist Uprising" and was again voted highly in favour of by the Algerian public. This legislative action further stabilised and significantly reduced violence in the country after official termination of the war in 2002.


2000s in Algeria, End of the Civil War, Legislation
Some felt that despite the tactical success of these laws, they failed to recognise the losses experienced by many Algerians during the war, and did not provide adequate punishment or retribution to those responsible for the violence.


2000s in Algeria, Post Civil War Period, Presidential controversy
President Bouteflika remained president for the entirety of the 2000s decade, after being re-elected to serve another five-year term in 2004 and 2009. The political system of the country during this period shifted to a slightly more democratic style government under Bouteflika's leadership, as opposed to the strictly "military rule" of the civil war period.


2000s in Algeria, Post Civil War Period, Presidential controversy
However, controversy has surrounded the election and reelection of President Bouteflika over the decade. His 1999 election was the subject of much criticism after just one day prior to the election all six of the other candidates pulled out with accusations of military fraud. According to a report from The Guardian "The United States called the polls a lost opportunity for progress towards democracy".


2000s in Algeria, Post Civil War Period, Presidential controversy
In 2004 Bouteflika's reelection was considered more legitimate yet still not completely transparent, as stated by Carol Migdalovitz in her CRS Report for Congress, there was "some manipulation of the political process but without blatant fraud".


2000s in Algeria, Post Civil War Period, Presidential controversy
Bouteflika's 2009 reelection was too considered an illegitimate win with Carnegie Middle East Centre reporting that he "used money to buy support" and that the 90.2% vote was "far too high to be credible".


2000s in Algeria, Post Civil War Period, Presidential controversy
Bouteflika went on to be reelected once more in 2014 following the end of the 2000s decade and has, despite controversy, been praised by many for his genuine success in bringing about an end to the war, restoring stability to the country, and expanding foreign and economic policy.


2000s in Algeria, Post Civil War Period, Politics and Terrorism
Despite the reduction in violence from the civil war, terrorism rose in prominence during the 2000s period, both nationally and globally. The Algerian Islamic extremist group ‘Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’ (‘AQIM’) emerged from the Islamic Guerrilla forces which fought in opposition to the government during the Algerian civil war. In 2003 the group formerly known as ‘Armed Islamic Group’ (‘GIA’) gained international recognition as being part of the Al-Qaeda group, and officially identified itself as ‘AQIM’ in 2007. The group was responsible for a number of violent terrorist acts in Algeria and Northern Africa which mostly targeted westerners as victims. ‘AQIM’, like other global terrorist groups in the 2000s, utilised new technology and the internet in order to gain influence and carry out their attacks.


2000s in Algeria, Post Civil War Period, Politics and Terrorism
Extremist Islamic terrorism in Algeria during this period was particularly relevant to the global politics of the decade, which was heavily influenced by the 2001 9/11 terrorist attacks and American President George Bush's ‘War on Terror’. Algeria and the USA cooperated in counterterrorism efforts during the 2000s and according to Journalist Mhand Berkouk “Several countries became interested in the Algerian experience and the expertise the country had gained in counterterrorism operations”. Bouteflika made two visits to the White House in 2001 following the September attacks, once in July and once in November.


2000s in Algeria, Post Civil War Period, Politics and Terrorism
Bouteflika has been accredited by Carnegie Middle East Centre with "Reinvigorating the country's foreign policy", both through cooperation with the United States and its growing role in Africa. During the 2000s Algeria gained increasing involvement and influence in the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), as well as contributing to the establishment of a partnership between the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in an attempt to develop the continent's economy.


2000s in Algeria, Post Civil War Period, Economy
Along with bringing an end to the war and reducing violence, Bouteflika's "primary task was to rebuild the country and its economy" according to the BBC. By 2004, at the time of his second election, the president had reduced debt and economic growth was at its "highest since the 1980's" according to the New York Times.


2000s in Algeria, Post Civil War Period, Economy
Unemployment continued to be a major issue throughout the decade, particularly among young people. The New York Times reported the countries unemployment level was at 25% in 2003. By 2009 unemployment was recorded at 75% of people under the age of 30 by Carnegie, Middle East Centre.


2000s in Algeria, Uprising of Minorities, 2001 Black Spring
In early 2001 riots broke out in the Kayblia region of Algeria as the native Berber people of the area fought to gain increased recognition of their traditional language and culture. The riots, known as the ‘Black Spring’, lasted up to 10 days and where responsible for between 40 and 80 deaths, with some controversy surrounding the validity of the recorded death toll. The catalyst for the riots was the death of a young Berber person who was shot while being held in custody by the national rural police, the Gendarmerie Nationale, in April 2001. This event caused particular outrage amongst the Berber community as it came during preparations for the 21st anniversary of the 1980 ‘Berber Spring’ uprising.


2000s in Algeria, Uprising of Minorities, 2001 Black Spring
As a result, strikes and demonstrations have gained popularity and frequency in the Kayblia,  especially amongst the youth of the region. Primary concerns of the protesters where the recognition of the Thamazighth language, restitution for the deaths of Kabylia people, removal of armed forces and autonomy for the Kabylia region.


2000s in Algeria, Uprising of Minorities, 2001 Black Spring
The 2001 ‘Black Spring’ has been referred to as one of the “deadliest events in the movements history” by Journalist Yasmina Allouche, as it spurred over 4 years of political unrest in the country lasting until early 2006. In the wake of the riots, Algeria experienced its largest demonstration in history, with more than 1 million protestors meeting on the 11 June 2001.


2000s in Algeria, Uprising of Minorities, 2001 Black Spring
The ‘Black Spring’ was a turning point in the ongoing history of the movement and left a legacy of political support for the Berber minority, such as formation of the transnational ‘Citizens Movement’. On the 10th of April 2002 the Berber language Tamazight was officially recognised and constitutionalised as a national language.


2000s in Algeria, 2001 Floods
In November 2001 Algeria was struck by “its worst flooding in years” as described by journalist Abdelmalek Touati. The floods affected the Northern region of Algeria, where precipitation levels are highest in the country.


2000s in Algeria, 2001 Floods
It was recorded by the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) that up to 751 people where killed, and up to 10, 000 families where effected by the ‘devastating’ flooding. The effected area was submerged in mud, leaving significant damage to roads, houses, schools and businesses, however ‘no danger of water-borne diseases’ was reported according to the OCHA.


2000s in Algeria, 2001 Floods
In the wake of this damage, Algeria was supported in its clean up and recovery by a number of nations, such as Sweden, France and Qatar. UNICEF and UNDP also contributed equivalent to US$3 million to the country in order to provide assistance.


2000s in Algeria, 2001 Floods
However, the National Algerian government was criticised by its people for its delayed response and lack of preparation for the natural disaster. Overall the country was left deeply effected by the 2001 floods. It was recorded in 2005 that ‘Approximately half the Algerian population lives below the poverty line’ and that the country ‘ranked 104 out of 177 countries in…overall well-being’ according to the United Nations’ human development index.


2000s in Angola
The 2000s in Angola saw the end of a 27-year-long civil war (1975–2002) and economic growth as foreign nation's began to invest in Angola's untapped petroleum reserves. The government continues to resettle internally displaced persons as its economy recovers and expands.


2000s in Angola, 2000
Illicit arms trading characterized much of the last years of the Angolan war. Each side tried to gain the upper hand by buying arms abroad in Eastern Europe and Russia. A Russian freighter delivered 500 tons of Ukrainian 7.62mm ammunition to Simportex, a division of the Angolan government, with the help of a shipping agent in London on 21 September 2000. The ship's captain declared his cargo "fragile" to minimize inspection. The next day, the MPLA began attacking UNITA, winning victories in several battles from 22 September–25. The government gained control over military bases and diamond mines in Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul, hurting Savimbi's ability to pay his troops.


2000s in Angola, 2001
Angola agreed to trade oil to Slovakia in return for arms, buying six Sukhoi Su-17 attack aircraft on 3 April 2000. The Spanish government in the Canary Islands prevented a Ukrainian freighter from delivering 636 tons of military equipment to Angola on 24 February 2001. The captain of the ship had inaccurately reported his cargo, falsely claiming the ship carried automobile parts. The Angolan government admitted Simportex had purchased arms from Rosvooruzhenie, the Russian state-owned arms company, and acknowledged the captain might have violated Spanish law by misreporting his cargo, a common practice in arms smuggling to Angola.


2000s in Angola, 2001
UNITA carried out several attacks against civilians in May in a show of strength. UNITA militants attacked Caxito on 7 May, killing 100 people and kidnapping 60 children and two adults. UNITA then attacked Baia-do-Cuio, followed by an attack on Golungo Alto, a city 200 km east of Luanda, a few days later. The militants advanced on Golungo Alto at 2:00 pm on 21 May, staying until 9:00 pm on 22 May when the Angolan military retook the town. They looted local businesses, taking food and alcoholic beverages before singing drunkenly in the streets.


2000s in Angola, 2001
More than 700 villagers trekked 60 km from Golungo Alto to Ndalatando, the provincial capital of Cuanza Norte, without injury. According to an aid official in Ndalatando, the Angolan military prohibited media coverage of the incident, so the details of the attack are unknown. Joffre Justino, UNITA's spokesman in Portugal, said UNITA only attacked Gungo Alto to demonstrate the government's military inferiority and the need to cut a deal. Four days later UNITA released the children to a Catholic mission in Camabatela, a city 200 km (120 mi) from where UNITA kidnapped them.


2000s in Angola, 2001
The national organization said the abduction violated their policy towards the treatment of civilians. In a letter to the bishops of Angola, Jonas Savimbi asked the Catholic church to act as an intermediary between UNITA and the government in negotiations. The attacks took their toll on Angola's economy. At the end of May, De Beers, the international diamond mining company, suspended its operations in Angola, ostensibly on the grounds that negotiations with the national government reached an impasse.


2000s in Angola, 2001
Militants of unknown affiliation fired rockets at United Nations World Food Program (UNWFP) planes on 8 June near Luena and again near Kuito a few days later. As the first plane, a Boeing 727, approached Luena someone shot a missile at the aircraft, damaging one engine but not critically as the three-man crew landed successfully. The plane's altitude, 5,000 metres, most likely prevented the assailant from identifying his target. As the citizens of Luena had enough food to last them several weeks, the UNFWP temporarily suspended their flights.


2000s in Angola, 2001
When the flights began again a few days later, militants shot at a plane flying to Kuito, the first attack targeting UN workers since 1999. The UNWFP again suspended food aid flights throughout the country. While he did not claim responsibility for the attack, UNITA spokesman Justino said the planes carried weapons and soldiers rather than food, making them acceptable targets. UNITA and the Angolan government both said the international community needed to pressure the other side into returning to the negotiating table. Despite the looming humanitarian crisis, neither side guaranteed UNWFP planes safety.


2000s in Angola, 2001
Kuito, which had relied on international aid, only had enough food to feed their population of 200,000. The UNFWP had to fly in all aid to Kuito and the rest of the Central Highlands because militants ambushed trucks. Further complicating the situation, potholes in the Kuito airport strip slowed aid deliveries. Overall chaos reduced the amount of available oil to the point at which the UN had to import its jet fuel.


2000s in Angola, 2001
Government troops captured and destroyed UNITA's Epongoloko base in Benguela province and Mufumbo base in Cuanza Sul in October 2001. The Slovak government sold fighter jets to the Angolan government in 2001 in violation of the European Union Code of Conduct on Arms Exports.


2000s in Angola, 2002 to 2005
Government troops killed Savimbi on 22 February 2002, in Moxico province. UNITA Vice President António Dembo took over, but died from diabetes twelve days later on 3 March, and Secretary-General Paulo Lukamba became UNITA's leader. After Savimbi's death, the government came to a crossroads over how to proceed. After initially indicating the counter-insurgency might continue, the government announced it would halt all military operations on 13 March. Military commanders for UNITA and the MPLA met in Cassamba and agreed to a cease-fire.


2000s in Angola, 2002 to 2005
However, Carlos Morgado, UNITA's spokesman in Portugal, said that the UNITA's Portugal wing had been under the impression General Kamorteiro, the UNITA general who agreed to the ceasefire, had been captured more than a week earlier. Morgado did say that he had not heard from Angola since Savimbi's death. The military commanders signed a Memorandum of Understanding as an addendum to the Lusaka Protocol in Luena on 4 April, Dos Santos and Lukambo observing.


2000s in Angola, 2002 to 2005
The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1404 on 18 April, extending the monitoring mechanism of sanctions by six months. Resolutions 1412 and 1432, passed on 17 May and 15 August respectively, suspended the UN travel ban on UNITA officials for 90 days each, finally abolishing the ban through Resolution 1439 on 18 October. UNAVEM III, extended an additional two months by Resolution 1439, ended on 19 December.


2000s in Angola, 2002 to 2005
UNITA's new leadership declared the rebel group a political party and officially demobilized its armed forces in August 2002. That same month, the United Nations Security Council replaced the United Nations Office in Angola with the United Nations Mission in Angola, a larger, non-military, political presence.


2000s in Angola, 2002 to 2005
The civil war spawned a disastrous humanitarian crisis in Angola, internally displacing 4.28 million people, one-third of Angola's population. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that 80% of Angolans lacked access to basic medical care, 60% lacked access to water, and 30% of Angolan children would die before the age of five, with an overall life expectancy of less than forty years of age. The government spent $187 million settling IDPs between 4 April 2002 and 2004, after which the World Bank gave $33 million to continue the settling process.


2000s in Angola, 2002 to 2005
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that fighting in 2002 displaced 98,000 people between 1 January and 28 February alone. The IDPs, unacquainted with their surroundings, frequently and predominantly fell victim to these weapons. IDPs comprised 75% of all landmine victims. Militant forces laid approximately 15 million landmines by 2002. The HALO Trust charity began demining in 1994, destroying 30,000 by July 2007. There are 1,100 Angolans and seven foreign workers who are working for HALO Trust in Angola, with operations expected to finish sometime between 2011 and 2014.


2000s in Angola, 2002 to 2005
Human Rights Watch estimates UNITA and the government employed more than 6,000 and 3,000 child soldiers respectively, some forcibly impressed, during the war. Human rights analysts found 5,000 to 8,000 underage girls married to UNITA militants. Some girls were ordered to go and forage for food to provide for the troops. If the girls did not bring back enough food as judged by their commander, then the girls would not eat. After victories, UNITA commanders would be rewarded with women who were often then sexually abused. The government and U.N. agencies identified 190 child soldiers in the Angolan army and relocated seventy of them by November 2002, but the government continued to knowingly employ other underage soldiers.


2000s in Angola, 2002 to 2005
The Angolan government pledged to abide by the provisions of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) in June 2003.


2000s in Angola, 2002 to 2005
Inflation decreased from 410% in 2000 to 110% in 2001 and 18.5% in 2005 as foreign investment began to bear fruit. The proportion of deposits lent as credit increased from 30% to 70% from 2002 to 2005. Banco BPI, a Portuguese bank, makes over 25% of its net profits in Angola, Other banks based in Portugal and South Africa plan to open offices in Angola.


2000s in Angola, 2006
Government representatives and Bembo Bembe, a former leader of FLEC, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 1 August 2006, in an attempt to end the 29-year-long Cabindan war. Bembe signed ostensibly on behalf of the Cabinda Forum for Dialogue (FCD). Many FCD members considered Bembe's signing illegitimate and rejected the agreement, which only granted Cabinda autonomy, not independence. The MoU included an amnesty for all crimes committed during the independence war (1977–2006).


2000s in Angola, 2006
The government shut down Mpalabanda, a Cabindan human rights organization and a member of the FCD, by court order in June 2006. The government said Mpalabanda had engaged in illegal political activities. The NGO appealed the court's decision. Mpalabanda accused both the military and FLEC militants of committing human rights abuses in Cabinda. Border officials arrested Raul Danda, Mpalabanda's spokesman, at Cabinda airport on the charge of 'instigating crimes against the security of the state', owning pro-independence literature, on 29 September.


2000s in Angola, 2007
Alan Kleier, the General Director for Chevron Corporation's operations in Angola, met with Marco Nhunga, Deputy General of the IDA (Instituto de Desenvolvimento Agrário), Cynthia G. Efird, the United States Ambassador to Angola, and Estevão Rodrigues, Director of CLUSA in Angola, in Benguela province on 1 March 2007.


2000s in Angola, 2007
Inclement weather caused a helicopter owned by BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, to crash in Angola on 16 November 2007, killing the helicopter's five passengers, including BHP's chief operation officer in Angola, David Hopgood. The helicopter went down about 50 miles from Alto Cuilo Camp, a diamond mining site the employees wanted to visit. BHP Billiton responded by suspending operations in the country. The company is investigating the incident.


2000s in Angola, 2008
The price of crude oil declined from $147.27 per barrel on 11 July 2008 to a 70% price drop in December. Many OPEC members advocated cutting the supply of oil by 1.5 to 2 million barrels to artificially inflate the price of petroleum to roughly $75 per barrel. Richard Segal, an analyst for the United Bank of Africa, posited that the global financial crisis made borrowing from the Chinese government cheaper than taking loans from the West.


2000s in Angola, 2008
President dos Santos visited China shortly after the crisis erupted, meeting with President Hu Jintao, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, and Wu Bangguo, the President of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. He asked his Chinese counterparts for $1 billion in investment in Angola's infrastructure, specifically in housing and water transportation. The Chinese government has invested $5–7 billion in Angola in return for Angola's crude oil. Nonetheless, Ricardo Gazel, a senior economist for the World Bank, predicted that Angola's initial budget for 2009, based on oil exports at $55 per barrel, would be revised with a much more modest outlook by as early as April 2009.


2000s in Angola, 2008
Despite the decline in the price of oil, Angola usurped Nigeria's place as the top producer of petroleum in sub-Saharan Africa in early 2008. Angola's oil exports were the primary contributor to the country's 25% growth rate, attracting illegal immigrants from West Africa. Angola LNG Limited awarded a $250 million contract to Acergy S.A., an oil and gas construction company, on 15 December to build an offshore pipeline, connecting five oil blocks with Angola LNG's plant in Soyo.


2000s in Angola, 2008
Petra Diamonds company ended its operations in Alto Cuilo amid a general downturn in demand for diamonds on 19 December. The company also announced that it is considering leaving Luangue, losing $62.3 million the company had previously invested.