The document discusses Europe's increasing reliance on energy imports and the geopolitical issues this presents. It notes that most of Europe's natural gas comes from Russia via pipelines running through Ukraine and Belarus, and that Russia has halted gas flows during pricing disputes, leaving countries without heat in winter. The EU is seeking to diversify its energy sources by projects like Nabucco pipeline to reduce dependence on Russia, but these alternatives can only meet a small part of demand. Russia is also building new pipelines like Nord Stream that bypass transit states, strengthening its position as Europe's main energy supplier.
6. Only one planned gas pipeline doesn’t rely on Russian supply- instead it relies on Kazakh supply- NABUCCO pipe, BUT Russia is planning a similar route (South Stream) The North Sea supply (UK and Norway) is running out- The UK imports some gas supply from former colony Guyana, but transport costs are high Southern Europe receives much supply from North Africa- obvious issues here- political unrest and Arab spring Algeria has problems with internal unrest and terror attacks- Libya- war These North African nations are also getting rich fast (Algeria) and so domestic use is increasing- meaning less for export China is demanding more gas and paying Russia to develop pipelines to ship gas to its borders like the ESPO- China can pay higher prices if Europe wants will have to increase price
13. Iranian control- history of dispute Water controlled by pirates- like a no man’s land- tankers can be held to ransom- risk of leaks or delays to supply Area suffering from multiple issues- piracy, political unrest and instability- also famine and drought- attacks could increase to get ransom money A real bottleneck has limited capacity for tankers as space limited
22. Russia Gazprom and the EU gas supply PROBLEM Does Russia use its natural resources as political weapon?
23. Does Russia use gas as a weapon? In 2006 and 2009 they halted supply over disputes with Ukraine In 2010 Russia switched off supplies to Belarus The Nord stream pipe when finished will pipe gas out of Russia under the Baltic sea into Germany- avoiding conflict areas Russia and Ukraine have very different political ideals, the current Ukraine govt, wants to get closer to EU whereas Russia does not- Russia doesn’t want Ukraine to bring EU to more of its borders Russia and Western Europe have had a clash of ideals in the past- capitalist Western Europe sided with the USA against communist USSR during the cold war In 2009 in Winter much of Eastern Europe had no gas supply for 10 days due to Russia /Ukraine dispute over unpaid bills Currently all except one of the supply routes from Russia to Europe go through Ukraine or Belarus Russia previously vowed to never do business with neighbouring China as the govts clash but hard economic times have forced Russia to rethink Russia has conflict with every neighbouring country- through history- it competes with former USSR friends Kazakhstan to try and keep them poor Every time EU tries to do deals with countries to supply gas and act as transit states