Energy consumption is linked direct to economic activity. According to Eurostat the most significant drop in European energy consumption – 5.8% – occurred in 2009 and is attributed by the agency “to a lower level of economic activity as a result of the global financial and economic crisis”, although in general the consumption of energy continues to grow […]
A key factor in current gas policy is the fight for the European gas market, which is becoming increasingly politicized. It is very evident that this market requires substantial re-structuring, linked to the consequences of American sanctions policy and changes in the system of gas transport routes, even if not all the transport options announced […]
German politicians’ faint hopes that the administration of new US president Joe Biden would replace wrath with favour have been dashed by an icy Transatlantic reality. Washington continues to take an intransigent stance and threaten European participants in the project with sanctions. But Berlin is still trying to withstand the pressure and save face, by […]
When it was announced a few years ago that Europe would soon begin to receive gas from Mediterranean deposits, proponents of diversifying the energy sector rubbed their hands with glee. Plans for creating an effective competitive base to offset Gazprom’s virtual monopoly on European gas supply have long occupied the hearts and minds of those […]
Problems with laying the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline, which were already substantial enough, became even more acute as soon as Denmark held its first public consultation on its potential construction. More than three hundred residents and official representatives of the Danish municipalities through whose area the gas pipeline should pass took part in the consultation. […]
The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) project and the related Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TGP), which have been in the process of implementation since 2011 have again become the subject of discussion in energy and political circles, in which this is connected to the latest intensification of the gas conflict between Ukraine and Russia and a growing […]
Despite the ending of the winter peak in fuel consumption in European countries, the situation with gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine remains acute; this is apparent not merely in the fact that from 26 February to 1 March there was a real threat of Ukrainian gas reserves falling below 8 billion cubic metres (bcm), […]
The theme of Europe’s energy security is a constant irritant in both EU–Russia relations and in relations among European elites. We should probably resign ourselves to the manipulative nature of discussions about European energy security, which are far from the real economic circumstances. With this manipulation in mind, we should focus on economic reality, which […]
One of the key questions for securing Europe’s energy security is the possibility of organising the transportation of Iranian gas to the EU and thus alleviating the EU’s dependence on gas supplies from Russia. In the last year and a half this question has acquired a key and apparently disproportionate significance for Europe’s energy security. […]
Construction of the mains gas pipeline that should go through the bed of the Mediterranean and join the Leviathan deposit in Israel with European consumers is being called one of the most ambitious projects in the energy sector of the global economy. This is first and foremost because having already approved its construction, Brussels hopes […]
Poland and Denmark have announced their decision to bring the Baltic Pipeline into operation in 2022. This troubled project, which has already been delayed twice since work began on it 16 years ago, should, according to its architects, supply the Poles and other European consumers with a significant volume of gas extracted in Norway. The […]
However much Kiev may try to disown everything that in any way – even metaphorically – gives Ukraine the brutal charm of its powerful neighbour Russia, there are certain things that President Poroshenko’s team are unable to hide. One of these is the catastrophe that is the country’s gas transportation system, whose condition European energy […]
This year the first LNG delivery from Cheniere Energy, the only US exporter to Europe so far, reached European shores. President Trump lost no time in declaring that the US is breaking Russia’s monopoly and is exporting LNG everywhere. On a more serious note, Swiss company Ineos alone plans on importing as many as eight […]
This August President Trump signed a new package of sanctions against Russia, which had been approved by both houses of the US Congress. There had been no doubt that Trump would sign the document making the sanctions mandatory, otherwise accusations of his connections with Russia would escalate. One of the most important components of the […]
