Here's yet another example of how despotic states, not rapacious private companies, are increasingly the heavy hitters of the world energy marketplace.
Russia, which has demonstrated its willingness to use energy as a political weapon, is tightening its grip on supplies to Western Europe, with projections showing it will provide 70 percent of the region's natural gas by 2025.Posted by Alan at April 22, 2006 08:20 AMUntil recently, members of the European Union were split into two "zones" of dependence on Russian gas and oil. Russia has a virtual monopoly on supplying gas and oil to new EU members, mostly former Soviet satellites. Old Europe, on the other hand, is less dependent, but that dependence is growing.
"Old Europe's independence is rapidly deteriorating. The two de facto zones are being equalized in the worst possible way," said Vladimir Socor, a Munich-based energy analyst with the Jamestown Foundation.
Mr. Socor, in a telephone interview yesterday, said Europe's growing demand, the depletion of North Sea gas and oil fields and Russian moves to buy up infrastructure in Europe are leaving the Continent ever more dependent on Russian supplies.