, Columnist
A Whiff of Rotten Eggs May Augur an Oil Shock
Sulfur is quietly roiling the energy industry.
It's sending a bad smell through global energy markets.
Photographer: Carl Court/Getty Images
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What’s the most important element in global commodity markets right now? Carbon? Copper? Gold?
Wrong on all three counts. Sulfur — the yellow, infernal substance that gives rotten eggs their smell and hardens the rubber in car tires — is quietly roiling the energy industry. The disruptions could reshape everything from Australian coal, to the diesel and gasoline in your car, to petcoke, a coal-like residue of oil refining burned in Indian power stations.