Europe Needs A New Source of Oil and Gas, Fast

Europe Needs A New Source of Oil and Gas, Fast (Oil Price, Sep 4, 2014):

Summer is over and many Europeans may have to keep warm this coming winter by thinking about their summer holidays while wrapped in blankets, praying for a short winter or for the world to come to its senses. It both cases, they may well be disappointed.

The never-ending conflicts in the Middle East, mayhem in Libya, uncertainty in the Gulf and a war in Ukraine are all going to take a toll on the energy supplies this winter.

Russia sold 86 billion cubic meters of gas last year, all of which passed through Ukraine. Given what’s happening there now, it is highly unlikely that the Russians would allow their gas to transit a country they are (unofficially) at war with. Just as it is unlikely that Ukrainians would allow Russian gas access through its territory.

Result? Many cold Europeans, many angry Europeans and many very pissed off Europeans. Many Europeans will have to make do without enough gas to heat homes, offices and factories. That’s a bad prospect in northern European countries, where winter is no laughing matter. Winter defeated the armies of both Napoleon and Hitler.

And what does history tell us about cold, angry, pissed-off Europeans? Well, whenever two opposing camps got cold, angry and pissed off enough at each other in the past, they typically went to war.

War in Europe? In our time?

It’s not impossible. If current trends continue, it is not at all impossible. Here’s why:

1. Mounting tension between Russia and the West over Ukraine — a situation that is very likely to worsen as the United States and European Union tighten sanctions on Moscow.

2. NATO forces edging dangerously close to Russian forces.

3. The spread of the violence and reach of the Islamic State. Besides the havoc they are creating in the region, there is the added threat of hundreds, if not thousands, of their supporters who have learned how to fight in Syria and Iraq returning to their home countries in Europe.

4. Turkey, which in recent years has played a stabilizing role in the region, is moving today in a different direction that could well lead to a new point of conflict.  From jumping head first into the Middle East conundrum under former prime minister and now President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country’s new prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, started off by possibly igniting a new fight when he announced — much to the pleasure of Azerbaijan, and certainly to the dismay of Armenia — that “the liberation of occupied Azerbaijani lands would be a strategic goal for Turkey.”

These remarks refer to the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh and outlying areas that have been occupied by Armenia since a violent conflagration around the time of the break-up of the Soviet Union. Armenians and Azerbaijani troops have been engaging in exchanges of fire on a daily basis over the past few months.

5: Mounting tension between Iran and Israel, and between Iran and an unnamed former Soviet republic in the region that Iran says allowed Israel to launch a drone from its territory to spy on Iran. Tehran has promised a stern response. The country in question is thought to be Azerbaijan, Armenia or Turkmenistan.

6. Continued mayhem in Libya, where the political turmoil is affecting the flow of oil and gas to Europe.

7. The continued state of unrest in Israel/Gaza and the surrounding area.

All these points of conflict are complicating Europe’s search for more reliable sources of energy. Europe is hoping to solve its gas shortage problems by purchasing Azerbaijani gas, but it’s unrealistic to depend only on Azerbaijani gas, since Europeans would be at the mercy of interruptions to gas and oil flows from this South Caucasus country.

What Europe desperately needs is a source of energy that with not be interrupted by conflict or politics, that can be delivered via pipeline or by sea, but will not need to transit through sea lanes in areas of conflict.

And although EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said last week that he is not worried about gas supplies from Russia via Ukraine, that show of confidence did not stop him from going to Moscow to plead Europe’s case with the Russians.

So where does that leave the Europeans other than out in the cold? Trend energy analyst Vagif Sharifov believes the new bonanza of natural gas lies in the Arctic, where more than 1,500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas can be found.

But polar drilling comes with a high cost and huge challenges. Europe might need to keep looking.

3 thoughts on “Europe Needs A New Source of Oil and Gas, Fast”

  1. So, is all this stick poking and provocation at Russia being engineered by the banksters and jew zionists so they can keep warm in winter after they’ve blown Russia to bits?

    Reply
  2. To Squodgy:

    They cannot blow Russia to bits…….they need Russia in their corner. I have been saying this for a long time…….Putin, like or hate him, is so far ahead of these clowns, that I find it amazing they are playing their low tricks with a former head of the KGB. Putin has the same equipment the west possesses, and Russia isn’t going to get hit by bombs. Russia is one of the richest countries in the world, and greedy gut bankers are not going to allow it to be destroyed. Profit, not nation, is what moves bankers.

    Bankers have no allegiance to nation or philosophy…..just profit. The world is now controlled by the bankers, and they are not going to allow such wealth to be ruined.
    Remember, Putin is a billionaire, and he is a powerful player in the world leadership. Nobody will okay Obama in attacking anyone, especially Russia. They bankers will never back such a war, and wars are always about money. The US is broke, Russia is rich. Who would you back?

    The Eurozone has a huge weakness. They were so anxious to become a “world economic power”, they didn’t look too closely at their members. Look at Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, France……even the UK has debt over 400% of GDP. All the members have one huge problem…….they are mired in debt. Also, no rules were set in place about working in unison, so they are not only divided, but it is obvious to the world that they are. They have proved themselves to be weak and fractured, and predators will find ways to profit from it.

    Before anyone thinks greedy bankers are going to underwrite a war with Russia, they need to look at certain facts.

    The Eurozone gets much of their heating oil and gas from Russia. If Russia continues to play hardball, and refuses to supply them, they will have to go elsewhere for their fuel. Such an endeavor would be very expensive and time consuming, and it ought to be up and running by now, if they were to do something else…..it is already too late. They need to make a deal with Russia.

    The deal with Russia will include accepting BRICS, and possibly dumping the dollar. Putin is smart enough to take a cost, and turn it into an asset. Who is really losing here? Not only does the cash strapped EU suffer from loss of Russian trade that provided E120 billion into the EU economy in GDP, it will be getting cold very soon, and people get angry if they cannot get warm or have products they need to hold down their jobs. The losers are the EU, not Russia.

    This might be a way to force the EU to join with the 21st century and go for the basket of currencies offered by BRICS. It is far easier to trade that way, and one is not dependent upon the status of the dollar at the time of transaction. It is a system that many members of the EU will probably want…….and there seems to be no way to stop them from doing what they want. Besides a common currency (except the UK who had better sense), they don’t agree on much.

    If dumping the dollar is a condition to get Russian gas and oil……….it will collapse the dollar, regardless of what the US does.

    The US has a huge problem. Nobody trusts them, likes them or feels safe doing business with them……that is what happens when criminals get control of a nation.

    Germany has been playing two ends against the middle in this situation, and such behavior isn’t leadership, it is stalling for time. The Eurozone remains divided and struggling to survive. Gas and oil provide many products. Without them, The Eurozone cannot profit in many areas, it reaches far into the economy, more than heating or fueling cars……..the EU is already in a recession, this can cause them to go into a full fledged depression like the US or Japan has these days.

    I cannot believe the EU members want such an outcome.

    Russia is making money, they can afford to squeeze the Eurozone. The Eurozone cannot afford to squeeze Russia with stupid sanctions or other Obama designed idiotic practices. Russia has every natural resource, it is huge, and can afford to play hardball. Putin also has a nation of people who know and approve of what he is doing. Russians want to be a world power again, and Putin is making that happen in record time. He is one of the most popular men on the globe.

    The real war has been economic and was initiated in 2010 as I have declared many times on this site. Technology has made any world reserve currency obsolete, Putin took Hugo Chavez’s trade policy and integrated its practices into a world economy. A strong electronic currency can translate the value of any currency at the time of transaction, making conversion to any other currency unnecessary and obsolete. BRICS has such a currency, and much of the world has joined with them…..all of their member nations are solvent, except China, but China has the blueprints for every product made in the west from power plants to computers to make up the difference quickly…… BRICS is simply a sister economy to the one in the west.

    Going into the Ukraine after a fictional gang of CIA fighters using the name ISIS is primitive, old school, and totally out of date. The real wars, like crime today, are white collar and often invisible until it is too late.

    Do not go into the Ukraine, and stop fighting obsolete wars.
    Friend Squodgy, don’t worry, the real war is economic. The only one unaware is the US, and they are already broke.
    Right now, the FED carries 86% or more of the interest on the National debt because foreign investment has dried up. The FED isn’t part of the US government, they are a private bank. What will happen when they decide to cut their losses?

    The war is about over, and the US has lost. Never before has war been waged and won against a nation that never realized it happened. This is one more reason history is made by men, not gaggles of fools.

    Reply
  3. Jeeeeezuss Marilyn….you’ll have to give me a couple of days to answer here…we’ve just had our grand-daughter for two days and are slightly brain dead!

    Will come back.

    Reply

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