  One major hurdle in the road toward a low carbon economy is the present
entanglement of developed economies with oil. This tight relationship is
mirrored in the correlation between most of economic indicators with oil price.
This paper addresses the role of oil compared to the other three main energy
commodities -coal, gas and electricity, in shaping the international trading
network (ITW or WTW, world trade web) in the light of network theory. It
initially surveys briefly the literature on the correlation between oil prices
with economic growth and compares the concepts of time correlation with the
concept of spatial correlation brought about by network theory. It outlines the
conceptual framework underpinning the network measures adopted in the analysis
and results are presented. Three measures are taken into account: the ratio of
mutual exchanges in the network (reciprocity); the role of distances in
determining trades (spatial filling); and the spatial correlation of energy
commodities with the whole trade network and with four trading categories:
food, capital goods, intermediate goods and consumption goods. The analysis
deliver five main results:1) the the energy commodities network was
structurally stable amid dramatic growth during the decade considered; 2) that
oil is the most correlated energy commodity to the world trade web; 3) that oil
is the most pervasive network, though coal is the less affected by distances;
4) that oil has a remarkably high level of internal reciprocity and external
overlapping 5) that the reciprocity of the trade network is negative correlated
in time with the price of oil.
