energy market – Officer of the Watch

Russian Sanctions and the Negative Effect on Global Energy Security

After a series of headline-grabbing statements about the possibility of “switching” European consumers over to American gas, the US media hastened to announce the launch of Obama’s oil and gas offensive against Russia. In reality the EU is not currently prepared, neither technically nor in terms of price, to buy its energy resources from the US. It would take at least ten years to adapt even the technically advanced German energy system to work with American gas supply. In a crisis, when it is particularly urgent to see a quick return on an investment, such projects are unrealistic.

Maintaining a robust global energy marketplace is critical to meeting rising global energy demand. The backbone of the global energy marketplace is free trade, which enables energy to move across various boundaries by pipeline, ship, railway, or in the case of electricity, by transmission lines. Oil and natural gas are the most widely traded energy sources, but other forms of energy, including coal, electricity and some renewable fuels, are also actively traded on the international market.