industryterm:energy security

  • #Nord_Stream 2 project can bec
    ome collision point in transatlantic relations - Rinkevics
    https://www.baltictimes.com/nord_stream_2_project_can_become_collision_point_in_transatlantic_relat

    RIGA - The planned Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline can become a collision point in transatlantic relations, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics (Unity) believes.

    While participating in a roundtable of an energy security conference organized by the Munich Security Conference and the ONS (Offshore Northern Seas Foundation) in Stavanger, Norway, Rinkevics expressed concern about the Nord Stream 2 project, which threatens to increase dependence on one dominant supplier and delivery route, which is contrary to the principles of the Energy Union (EU), LETA was told at the Latvian Foreign Ministry.

    Rinkevics argued that the only way to address these issues at the EU level was to support the diversification of energy supply sources and develop the EU’s internal energy market. Moreover, energy is not only a matter for European security but also a question of transatlantic relations. Nord Stream 2 can become one of the collision points in the transatlantic relationship.

    At the same time, Rinkevics indicated that Latvia and the other Baltic States had done much to integrate into the EU energy market, which means that the Baltic States can no longer be regarded as “energy islands”.

    #russie #lettoni #gazprom #guerre_des_tubes #gaz

  • Germany starts to build Nord Stream 2

    https://euobserver.com/foreign/141756

    Germany has started to pour concrete on a Russian gas pipeline that risks dividing the EU and harming its energy security.

    The construction began in Lubmin, on Germany’s Baltic Sea coast, on Thursday (3 May), by laying the foundations for a gas terminal that will receive 55bn cubic metres (bcm) of Russian gas via the Nord Stream 2 pipeline when it goes online in 2020.

    “We are moving within the framework of the planning approval decision,” a spokesman for Gazprom, the Russian firm behind the project, told German press agency DPA.

    “We are confident that we will receive all relevant permits,” the spokesman added.

    #nordstream #gazprom #guerre_du_gaz #russie #allemagne #mer_baltique #énergie

  • Mongolia hopes fifth time’s the charm for oil refinery | The UB Post
    http://theubpost.mn/2018/02/11/mongolia-hopes-fifth-times-the-charm-for-oil-refinery

    The construction of an oil refinery at Altan Shiree soum of Dornogovi Province is set to commence in April of 2018, financed with a one billion USD loan from India. The progress of the project has been encouraging for many who are hopeful that the refinery will offset a certain amount Mongolia’s fuel dependence on Russia.

    Despite the optimism, there has been a lot of skepticism, rightfully so. An oil refinery has been an elusive objective for Mongolia for decades. Since the transition into a democracy in 1990, Mongolia has for the most part, been able to maintain the integrity of its political security, dictating its own foreign policy.

    What Mongolia has not been able to do is fully ensure its economic and energy security. China is Mongolia’s biggest trading partner and largest buyer of its exports. Previously, the predecessor of the Russian Federation, the Soviet Union filled that role for Mongolia. In the 1990s, due to Russia being caught up in its own internal issues, it saw a significantly reduced role in Mongolia’s economy. Where Moscow has been able to make up for that loss is in the fuel sector.

    Mongolia is essentially 100 percent dependent on Russia for fuel. Russia, in particular the state-owned Rosneft, is the largest exporter of fuel to Mongolia, accounting for 94 percent of fuel imports in 2016. In 2017, Russia accounted for up to 98 percent fuel imports to Mongolia. The almost absolute dependency of Mongolia on Russia and the fact that the Mongolian government considers fuel a strategic commodity helps maintain some influence of Russia on Mongolia’s economy.

    The oil refinery financed by India is part of Prime Minister U.Khurelsukh’s Cabinet’s efforts to ensure that Mongolia produces food, energy, and fuel internally. The sentiment to alleviate Mongolia’s dependence on its two neighbors is not new and the construction of an oil refinery has been discussed for two decades.

  • THE SOUTH CHINA SEA : - the Mediterranean of Asia, Ellen Wasylina - livre, ebook, epub
    http://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=livre&isbn=978-2-343-13360-7

    THE SOUTH CHINA SEA :
    the Mediterranean of Asia
    The geostrategic Maritime Review n°9
    Ellen Wasylina
    ACTUALITÉ SOCIALE ET POLITIQUE GÉOPOLITIQUE, RELATIONS INTERNATIONALES, DIPLOMATIE ASIE Chine

    The South China Sea is a classic Mediterranean sea-structure with a long history of populations living in the basin and taking advantage of a permanent trading activity interrupted by some dramatic war moments. The Chinese preponderance on the development and the history of the basin has been a permanent element of both equilibrium and dilemma. Political and military tensions are heating up with a sharp increase in commercial relations amongst the regional countries and the great international powers.

    –------

    Revues QUEST OF THE ARCTIC, Ellen Wasylina, The geostrategic Maritime Review 7
    http://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=numero&no=52253&no_revue=934

    QUEST OF THE ARCTIC
    The geostrategic Maritime Review n°7
    Ellen Wasylina
    ENVIRONNEMENT, NATURE, ÉCOLOGIE GÉOPOLITIQUE, RELATIONS INTERNATIONALES, DIPLOMATIE ARCTIQUE

    This seventh issue of the Geostrategic Maritime Review comes on the sixth year of activity of the International Geostrategic Maritime Observatory. This publication contains five articles : Arctic Geopolitics as a Major Public Issue : the Reasons Behind a Lack of Awareness ; Harvesting Arctic Authority : The Protection of Arctic Biomarine Resources, Sovereignty and Global Security ; The Case for an International Régime for the Arctic ; 25 years ago : the Odyssey of the Astrolabe and A life in the service of France, of the Pacific, and the Arctic and Antarctica : Michel Rocard (1930-2016), Regions.

    –----

    Revues STRATEGIC BALTIC SEA, Ellen Wasylina, The geostrategic Maritime Review 8
    http://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=numero&no=54076&no_revue=934

    STRATEGIC BALTIC SEA
    The #geostrategic_Maritime_Review n°8
    Ellen Wasylina
    ACTUALITÉ SOCIALE ET POLITIQUE QUESTIONS EUROPÉENNES GÉOPOLITIQUE, RELATIONS INTERNATIONALES, DIPLOMATIE EUROPE

    This issue of the Geostrategic Maritime Review gives the reader some background and depth on the history of the Baltic Sea region. The studied topics are the geostrategic situation, the geopolitical and geoeconomic stakes of logistic hubs in the Baltic states, and finally, the digitalization and modernization of European transportation and the roles that the US, Russia and the EU play together to ensure national, economic and energy security in Eurasia.

    #arctique #mer_de_chine_méridonale #pays_baltes #mer_baltique #bibliographie #

  • Commentary: A win for Trump’s #gas_diplomacy
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-grigas-lng/commentary-a-win-for-trumps-gas-diplomacy-idUSKCN1BB01K

    Last week, American liquefied natural gas (LNG) made its way to the somewhat unlikely market of #Lithuania. The former Soviet republic traditionally bought its gas from Russian state company Gazprom; this was its first shipment from the United States. For President Donald Trump, that must have been a gratifying sign of the success of his administration’s nascent energy diplomacy.

    The U.S. became the world’s largest producer of natural gas around 2011, overtaking its long-time competitor Russia and starting to rival Saudi Arabia in oil production. This was made possible by the shale revolution – the breakthrough of hydraulic fracturing, better known as “fracking,” that could split rock formations below ground and boost the extraction of oil and gas resources from shale rock formations. Environmentalists oppose LNG exports on the grounds that methane leakage from fracking can make natural gas as harmful to the climate as coal and that the LNG trade involves the energy-intensive measures of freezing gas, shipping it across oceans, and then regassifying – a process that further increases the carbon footprint.
    […]
    Nonetheless, Cheniere launched its inaugural delivery of LNG to Poland in June. During his visit to Poland the following month, Trump reiterated the implications of this delivery: “We are committed to securing your access to alternate sources of energy, so Poland and its neighbors are never held hostage to a single supplier of energy,” he said.

    While reducing Gazprom’s dominance is part of Washington’s long-standing agenda, the Trump administration is the first to explicitly link the trinity of diplomacy, LNG trade, and national economic interests in Europe, Asia, and beyond. However, U.S. officials should be wary of implying that Washington’s LNG diplomacy is centered on making America’s friends buy gas to prove their loyalty. It’s already in Washington’s economic interests to support its allies’ energy security. There is no need for the White House to belabor the point.

  • Energy dreams in the days of power cuts
    https://tr.boell.org/de/2017/01/11/energy-dreams-days-power-cuts

    The biggest city of Turkey, and its economic heartland, Istanbul has ended the year 2016 with power cuts over several days. Besides causing public outrage towards the provider companies, the power cuts also meant economic losses for private businesses. According to the Turkish Automotive Parts Industry Association (TAYSAD), car manufacturers lost almost 300 million Euros in these few days. Escalating winter conditions made power cuts hard to tolerate for consumers as well, as a good amount of houses are using electrical heaters. This situation is not without irony for a country that is hoping to become a global energy hub.

    A photo showing Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, President Erdoğan’s son-in-law, seemingly berating the head of TEİAŞ, the company responsible for the electricity transmission lines spoke volumes about how unpleasant the political outfall from the cuts might be for the government. While the minister and the pro-government media have pointed to the possibility of an international conspiracy against the national electricity network, it is clear that at a time, when the government is hoping to rally public support for a constitutional referendum, these cuts will not help their ratings.

    Even after the damage was repaired, the experts have continued warning that the problem is lying deeper and further cuts are to be expected mainly owing to the shortage in natural gas. Iran, the second biggest exporter to Turkey, has cut down the gas flow in December 2016 due to technical reasons, a development increasing the already existing deficit. BOTAŞ has repeated that it will cut supply to gas-fired power plants early in January. These cuts in urban centers have only been postponed as the weather conditions worsened last week.

    Another challenge for the energy security of the country is the falling currency exchange rate. Most energy imports are traded in Dollars and the electricity companies are among those holding high amounts of debts in foreign currencies

    #Turquie #Electricité #Coupure #Gaz naturel

  • Chilcot’s blind spot: Iraq War report buries oil evidence, fails to address motive | openDemocracy
    https://www.opendemocracy.net/david-whyte/chilcot-s-oil-blind-spot-in-iraq-war-report

    Most important of these is oil. Buried in deep in volume 9 of the 2.6 million-word report, Chilcot refers to government documents that explicitly state the oil objective, and outlining how Britain pursued that objective throughout the occupation. But he does not consider this evidence in his analysis or conclusions. Oil considerations do not even appear in the report’s 150-page summary.

    To many people around the world, it was obvious that oil was a central issue, as Iraq itself had nearly a tenth of the world’s oil reserves, and together with its neighbouring countries nearly two thirds. There was a clear public interest in understanding how that affected UK decisions. Chilcot failed to explore it.

    Section 10.3 of the report, in volume 9, records that senior government officials met secretly with BP and Shell on at several occasions (denied at the time) to discuss their commercial interests in obtaining contracts. Chilcot did not release the minutes, but we had obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act: they are posted here. In unusually expressive terms for a civil service write-up, one of the meeting’s minutes began, “Iraq is the big oil prospect. BP are desperate to get in there” (emphasis in original).

    Also in that section, Chilcot includes references to several pre-war documents identifying a British objective of using Iraqi oil to boost Britain’s own energy supplies. For example, a February 2002 Cabinet Office paper stated that the UK’s Iraq policy falls “within our objectives of preserving peace and stability in the Gulf and ensuring energy security”. A Foreign Office strategy paper in May 2003, which Chilcot didn’t include, was even more explicit: “The future shape of the Iraqi oil industry will affect oil markets, and the functioning of OPEC, in both of which we have a vital interest”.

  • Turks usher in 2016 with hike in electricity prices
    http://www.todayszaman.com/business_turks-usher-in-2016-with-hike-in-electricity-prices_408534.htm

    Effective as of Friday, the hike will cover the costs of new infrastructural investments that will be made by power distribution companies during the year, according to the media.

    “Distribution companies are responsible for [any malfunction] at grid circuits and electricity meters installed at doorsteps. … The EPDK will ensure the extra burden will be returned to consumers as [more quality] service,” reports cited energy officials as saying.

    The latest hike came at a time when flaws in recently privatized national electricity network came under the spotlight. According to data from the Federation of Consumer Unions (TBF), planned power cuts made by the 21 distribution companies across Turkey totaled 72,250 hours in November alone. The number of hours in unplanned outages, however, is unknown.

    The government privatized companies that supply electricity to the national grid in Turkey in September 2013 in a bid to reduce unit electricity prices as well as ensure energy security. But flaws in distribution have been common since then.

    “They do not invest. There is neither maintenance nor inspection. Public institutions should immediately launch strict inspections. But power companies have been complaining all the time recently,” Hüseyin Yeşil, the president of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers (EMO), earlier told Today’s Zaman.

    Electricity theft here to stay

    A recent alteration that was made in energy market codes, however, will seemingly ensure the persistence of illegal electricity use across the country.

    According to an amendment that entered into force on the last day of 2015, distribution companies that sustained more illegal electricity consumption than the national average in 2014 will be regarded as a “large-loss company” until 2025.

    Commenting on the new regulation, EMO head Yeşil said: “This change says ‘well done’ to those companies with high illegal electricity records and creates new options for them.”

    Abdullah Tivnikli, a businessman known for his close ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said early this year he wants to exit his partnership with the Dicle Electricity Distribution (DEDAŞ) in order to avoid further losses due to the illegal use of electricity in the area the company operates in. “I have to leave this partnership, or we will be forced to have blackouts in the region to compensate for our losses,” Tivnikli said back then

    #électricité #Turquie #Privatisation

  • Crimea blockade activists agree to partial power supply to Crimea : UNIAN news
    http://www.unian.info/politics/1204166-crimea-blockade-activists-agree-to-partial-power-supply-to-crimea.ht

    Participants in the blockade agree with the position that the power supply could be restored via the Kakhovka-Titan line, taking into consideration our country’s energy security and other spheres,” Chubarov said.

    This is the only [transmission] line with the power capacity limited to 220-250 megawatts. The others’ capacity could be increased to 550 megawatts,” he said.

    There are four transmission lines supplying the power to Crimea: Kakhovka-Titan, Kakhovka-Dzhankoi, Kakhovka-Ostrovska, and Melitopol-Dzhankoi. All of them are idle now. Only the Kakhovka-Titan line has been repaired with our consent,” he said.

    He also reported a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had been held on the power supply to Crimea.

    As UNIAN reported, two out of the four transmission lines supplying the power from mainland Ukraine to Russian-occupied Crimea and some districts of Ukraine’s Kherson and Mykolaiv regions were damaged during the explosions of their pylons in Kherson region in the early hours of November 20. The pylons of the remaining two lines were damaged in new blasts on the following day.

  • Russia may be raising the stakes on Turkey after it shot down a Russian air force jet - Business Insider
    http://uk.businessinsider.com/russia-may-be-raising-the-stakes-on-turkey-after-it-shot-down-a-

    Dans cet article sur #turkish_stream (toujours pas de décision), les « incompréhensions » (au minimum) des pays d’Europe centrale sur la politique gazière de la CE (on rappellera que la non réalisation de #south_stream est une conséquence de la participation de Gazprom au projet, le même Gazprom étant associé à #north_stream II apparemment, sans que cela pose de problème)

    In September, a group of European companies signed an agreement with Gazprom to expand its Nord Stream pipeline so that it can deliver increased volumes directly from Russia to Germany, also without pumping them through Ukraine.

    Gazprom and Royal Dutch Shell form the new consortium for the project, which is called Nord Stream II and aims to double the route’s annual capacity to about 100 billion cubic meters of gas.

    The new pipelines are due to start transporting gas by the end of 2019, according to the consortium.

    The plan has met opposition from the U.S. government and some eastern European countries, which say it allows the Kremlin to squeeze Ukraine out from its role as a transit country.

    The pro-Western government in Kiev, in power since street protests overthrew a Moscow-friendly president last year, earns significant revenues from transit fees.

    Ten EU countries have written a letter to the European Commission saying that Nord Stream II runs counter to the bloc’s interests.

    Polish Minister for Maritime Affairs Marek Grobarczyk told Reuters last week the project would harm energy security by deepening dependence on Russian gas.

    There is a broad agreement within EU countries ... that building Nord Stream II stands against the idea of diversification and the idea of the internal market and would lead to an increase of energy supplies from one direction and one supplier,” Grobarczyk said.

    Hungary, a country which backed the aborted South Stream project, has accused the EU of exercising double standards over which pipeline routes it supports and which it opposes.

    They complained about South Stream because it would have bypassed Ukraine. Does Nord Stream II traverse Ukraine?”, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Nov. 20. “Interestingly, South Stream was problematic, while Nord Stream is not.

  • Significance of Southern Gas Corridor project increasing due to Ukrainian conflict – Georgian minister
    http://en.trend.az/business/energy/2417993.html

    Significance of the Southern Gas Corridor is increasing day by day due to the conflict in Ukraine, as well as the relations between Kiev and Moscow in the gas sphere, Davit Bakradze, Georgian state minister on European and Euro-Atlantic integration told Trend.
    […]
    Here, we mean both the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and the Anaklia New Deep Water Black Sea Port,” he said. “All this will help implement the New Silk Road project.

    The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for EU. This project is aimed at diversification of routes and sources of energy supply and thereby increase EU’s energy security.

    The Southern Gas Corridor envisages the delivery of gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas and condensate field to Europe.

  • Lawmakers debate planned gas imports from Israel | The Jordan Times
    http://jordantimes.com/lawmakers-debate-planned-gas-imports-from-israel

    the minister listed six justifications for importing natural gas from the natural gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean, including curbing NEPCO’s losses and securing more than one source of gas. “Importing liquefied natural gas will enhance the Kingdom’s energy security.”

    The withdrawal of British Petroleum from the concession agreement of gas exploration in the Risheh field, the low cost of natural gas-fired electricity generation and the impossibility to replace natural gas with renewable energy and oil shale to generate electricity are the other reasons Hamed cited.

    #Jordanie #gaz #énergie

  • Yatsenyuk, Klimkin discuss Ukraine’s energy security with US senator
    http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/yatseniuk-klimkin-discuss-ukraines-energy-security-with-us-senator-369773.

    Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Tuesday, Oct. 28 held a meeting with U.S. Senator and Deputy Head of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee James Inhofe during which the sides discussed energy security and the strengthening of military cooperation, the Ukrainian government’s press service has reported.

  • Europe Has Several Possible Replacements For Russian Gas But All Are Risky, Expensive And Will Take Years To Develop
    http://www.ibtimes.com/europe-has-several-possible-replacements-russian-gas-all-are-risky-expensiv

    Vladimir Putin’s rapid annexation of Crimea has sparked a new urgency in the European Union to find energy supplies outside Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom, but weaning the EU from Russian gas will be slow and difficult.

    The U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS) concluded as much six months ago, when it published an extensive report on Western Europe’s energy security. That report discussed a handful of alternatives to Russia’s Gazprom, including North African gas, Central Asian gas and U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports, concluding that although the options are many, completely replacing Russian gas will be difficult if not impossible, and each option faces significant challenges.

    Little did the report’s authors know how prophetic their words were when they wrote last August, “The 28 member-state European Union (EU) has been a growing natural gas consumer and importer for decades. As Europe’s natural gas production has declined in recent years, its dependence on imported natural gas has increased. This has left it more dependent as a whole on its primary supplier, Russia, which has shown some inclination to use its resources for political ends.”

    In 2012, Gazprom accounted for 34 percent of the European Union’s natural gas imports, CRS found. Norway accounts for another 35 percent of natural gas imports, making it the lead supplier to the EU, and Algeria is the third-largest supplier to the 28 member countries, which import 64 percent of their natural gas supply.

    Little has changed since the CRS report, a senior analyst for the U.S. government said Thursday. He believes Europe’s best option to decrease dependency on Russia is within its own borders — to increase interconnectivity of existing pipelines, increase gas storage and increase transparency that would allow companies to calculate costs of transport between countries.

    In North Africa, new political leadership and vast reserves mean some countries like Algeria, Libya and Egypt have the potential to become some of the largest European suppliers. The three countries together could provide about 44 percent of what Russia does today, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

    But problems with infrastructure and political instability are getting in the way.

    Algeria is the second-largest exporter on the continent and could possibly have more gas in shale resources than in its current reserves.

    “Algeria could become a more significant gas producer and exporter. However, a difficult business environment may continue to limit its potential,” the CRS report reads.

    In 2011, a consortium led by the Algerian state-owned Sonatrach opened the Medgaz natural gas pipeline that runs to Spain. But Spain’s pipelines have little connectivity to the rest of Europe, “like an island,” the senior U.S. official said. The state-owned Sonatrach continues to hold a majority stake in all energy projects and Algerian investment and export laws seem to change every year.

    Algeria’s regional neighbor Egypt has seen domestic for natural gas increase more than 57 percent since 2005, but production is limited, in part because of hard-to-reach reserves. While potentially a rich new source of supply for Europe, attacks from Bedouin and terrorist groups in the Sinai Peninsula have halted Egyptian exports much closer to home in Israel and Jordan. According to CRS, Egypt will need to make the tough political decisions to cut fuel subsidies and encourage western investment before it can tackle an ambitious export plan.

    In Libya, natural gas production dropped 90 percent during the 2011 civil war. The industry has recovered to a degree but civil unrest, protests and strikes still hamper production. Still, Libya holds the fourth-largest amount of natural gas reserves in Africa, and new leadership could help facilitate further exports.

    “Libya may have the greatest potential to increase natural gas exports to Europe once a new regime is established and possibly a new state oil and natural gas company in a post-Qadhafi Libya,” the Congressional Research Service concluded.

    Central Asia sits on top of the largest reserves of natural gas in the world, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), but transporting that gas to Europe would require expensive and lengthy pipelines through multiple countries. Nonetheless, the EU has proposed what’s known as the Southern Strategy or Southern Corridor to transport natural gas from the Caspian region through Turkey.

    The initially planned Nabucco pipeline, which is no longer considered commercially viable, would have transported gas from Turkey to Austria.

    Now a smaller pipeline project has taken its place, known as the Trans-Anatolian natural gas pipeline (TANAP). This pipeline would carry gas through Turkey from Azerbaijan and connect to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which flows from the Turkish border through Greece and Albania, ending in Italy. But delays in construction have forced the Central Asian countries to hunt for customers in the east. Construction on TANAP is expected to begin at the end of the year and be completed by 2018. Even so, European pipelines would then need to connect to Italy’s infrastructure, which would present its own problems.

    Perhaps the most touted option so far is to import LNG from the U.S, but the U.S. Energy Department has so far only approved seven applications out of more than 20, and only one has final approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The soonest any company will export LNG from the U.S. is 2015.

    LNG already represents about 25 percent of European natural gas imports, up from 15 percent in 2010, according to CRS. Algeria, Egypt and Qatar are the largest suppliers, and the U.K., Spain and France are the largest consumers. There are 22 LNG import terminals around Europe, with Poland, Lithuania and Estonia building new terminals that could distribute imported LNG around Northern and Eastern Europe.

    With U.S. LNG in the global gas market, prices would decline and eat into Russia’s profit. Some energy analysts, like David Goldwyn, a senior fellow for the Energy Security Initiative at the Brookings Institution, argue merely expediting the LNG permitting process would immediately erode Russia’s market power.

    President Obama was in Brussels Wednesday to discuss trade relations and the Ukraine crisis and he said a new trans-Atlantic trade agreement under negotiation would make it easier for his administration to approve LNG exports. He emphasized that it can’t happen overnight.

    #Gazprom
    #Russie
    #CRS U.S. ( Congressional Research Service )
    #Western-Europe’s-energy-security
    #EU ( European Union )

  • Stopping West African piracy is vital for Europe’s energy security

    http://theconversation.com/stopping-west-african-piracy-is-vital-for-europes-energy-security-2

    The Crimea crisis has focused our attention on the vexed question of Europe’s energy supplies. To a great extent Europe depends on Russia for its oil and gas, which gives Vladimir Putin disproportionate political leverage. One of the biggest possible alternative suppliers is the Gulf of Guinea, which is thought to have vast untapped reserves – but which is also a world epicentre of maritime crime.

    #piraterie-maritime