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 […]
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 […]
Last year, not too long ago, some independent experts called the construction of the Baltic Pipe trunk gas pipeline (TGP) from Norway to Poland via Denmark a very ambitious project for the North Europe region. Precisely a year ago potential participants in the project started another round of the Baltic Pipeline discussions, the third in […]
In recent years production of crude oil in Azerbaijan has been steadily declining. In 2015 Azerbaijan, a former Soviet Transcaucasian Republic and a large global oil- and gas-market player, produced 41.7 million tonnes of ‘black gold’, whereas in 2016 production was a million tonnes less. Over the first six months of this year Azerbaijan produced […]
Against the backdrop of a growing interest in the evolution of the digital economy both in Russia and abroad the future of the development and processing of conventional and non-conventional hydrocarbons tends to fade somewhat into insignificance. In the long term that is fair. However in the medium-term the oil and gas sector may see […]
