Duke Energy CEO on soaring oil prices: 'We're working hard to mitigate those price increases'

In a new interview with Yahoo Finance's Akiko Fujita, Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good discussed the impact of the global energy crunch on oil prices and how it may hit consumers' wallets in the coming years.

Video transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: I want to begin with something that I think is on the minds of a lot of people who are watching, and that is, the global energy crunch we're seeing play out. We've got a shortage of coal halting production over in China, natural gas prices soaring over in Europe, and then here in the US, the White House has raised some concerns about soaring oil prices. As we look ahead to the colder months, how do you see the supply demand and that dynamic playing out?

LYNN GOOD: Akiko, thank you, and it's a pleasure to be here with you and enjoying the conversation. There's no question, there has been an impact on commodities. And I think what you're seeing is the increase in demand as the world economy kind of recovers from COVID. At the same time, we're facing a period where the production of these commodities has remained flat. In some cases, maybe even declining.

We have low storage of natural gas. And then from the US, of course, a lot of exports to other countries. So there's no question we're seeing rising prices. And we're working hard to mitigate those price increases to the extent that we can. And also to communicate actively with our customers, our regulators, our policymakers, about what we're seeing. And so we see this with us as an issue into 2022. And really look forward to, perhaps, a rebalancing of some of these supply demand dynamics as 22 rolls into 2023.

AKIKO FUJITA: What kind of price increases are customers looking at? There's concern about potential sticker shock, come winter.

LYNN GOOD: Sure. And Akiko, it depends. As we look at the way we manage our portfolio, we do have an opportunity to enter into hedging contracts. And those hedging contracts, right now, are quite valuable because they were priced at previous prices, but over time prices will increase.