The world economic recovery is expected to gain momentum in the second half of 2022 and 2023 and beyond. 5-year average despite indications of an increase in exploration and production (Graph 7). Increasing demand fueled by the economic recovery that has exceeded supply capacity owing to limited mobility caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted global supply chains and created energy scarcity.
Delta variant transmission has caused numerous problems in the distribution and supply of energy and production globally, as reflected in the scarcity of containers, backlogs at many ports, longer delivery times, and rising shipping costs between countries, especially since April 2021 (Graph 6).