Economic growth and energy security are the backbones of the European Union’s resilience, but are both the weak spots in the chainmail of Europe. A raft of new projects will help Europe diversify its energy supply and security over the medium and long-term, concluded experts present at the Atlantic Council Energy and Economic Summit’s in Istanbul, Turkey. Opinion leaders from politics, media, academia, and the corporate world gathered for two days of talks on how governments and companies manage emerging risks and uncertainty in today’s turbulent times. Panelists discussed a number of factors that make it difficult for Europe to wean itself off Russian gas in the near-term. Europe is plagued by a lack of affordable alternatives to Gazprom, and until projects like the Southern Corridor are completed and the United States begins exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe in larger quantities, the majority of European energy imports will continue to flow from Russia. On the same time, one should not forget that we do not speak about a one way dependency, but rather a co-dependence likely to continue for the foreseeable future.Alan Riley, Professor of Law, City University of London, discussed the ways in which Gazprom is still very much dependent on Europe, as the planned Russian-Chinese pipeline is still years from completion and the two countries have yet to strike an accord on splitting the costs and responsibilities for construction. Until the pipeline construction is completed, “China is a very difficult place for Gazprom to deliver gas profitably,” he explained. With larger shipments to East Asian markets still a pipe dream, Russia will need to continue [...]
In a few words
We represent the widely understood Central Europe energy sector (electricity generation, distribution and transmission, renewables, gas, oil, heat generation and distribution, chemical industries, etc.), universities and scientific institutions.
