What is the energy actors' position during the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
Hello everyone,
Today I joined an organization name is: "Regional Clean Energy Outlook Conference" organized by Atlantic Council. Atlantic Council is a think tank about global challenges. They organize quality conferences about current #energy market problems.
Firstly, when I listened to the actors from the public and private sectors, they were anxious about energy security. Especially "winter is coming" in European countries. As we know that European countries import nearly 50% of natural gas from Russia. According to Statista data, some countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova, and Nord Macedonia) depend 100% on Russia. Russia transferred most of this gas via #Ukraine's land.
Figure 1: Share of gas supply from Russia in Europe in 2021, by selected country
Statista
What is the main reason between Russia and Ukraine? The main reason is energy security. Russia wants to export its natural gas to Europe countries and Ukraine wants to make benefit from this transition. Ukraine is a bridge country between Russia and European countries.
The first speaker of the conference is Mr. Geoffrey R. Pyatt. He is assistant secretary of State for Energy Resources, #USA. He said Russia was using energy as a weapon. Energy security is a very big problem and especially European countries have to find a solution for this winter but it takes time. (Off the record: European countries are the best market option for USA natural gas. The USA started to export its country to Europe and Russia's problem is a big opportunity for them.)
Normally they have to start min 10 years ago to reduce dependence on Russian gas. But Germany also uses Russian gas and they are a key industry country in Europe. They need natural gas more than other European countries. They want to continue importing Russian gas (see North Stream 2 natural gas pipeline project). After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, their policy changed and they canceled North Stream 2 project.
During the conference speakers' presentation topics were very critical. And my master's program takes notes and we want to add this information to our master's thesis and articles.
#European countries are too late to take action. We need to articulate this both through this platform and through articles. For example, #Turkey's geographical location is also critical. We also export a large amount of natural gas from #Russia. We are trying to diversify our energy sources, but I think this measure is insufficient. For example, the Russians are building our first #nuclear power plant.
What do you think about #natural #gas dependency for one country?