Is the TEN-E Regulation Fit for a Decarbonized Future? A Battle to Shape the European Energy Transition
The European Union’s energy infrastructure policy has become obsolete with the adoption of both the Green Deal and the 2050 climate neutrality target. The ongoing review of the regulation on Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E) should lead to an-depth discussion on Europe’s energy transition strategy.
Addressing the Climate Emergency: Closing 1,000 Gigawatts of Coal Plants by 2035
In order to have any chance of limiting global warming to well below +2°C, there is no choice but to tackle coal-fired power plants head-on, around the world.
A Review of Recent Trends in China’s Gas Sector and a Glimpse into the 14th Five-Year Plan
China’s economy has rebounded since April 2020 and China is one of the few countries in the world that is expected to avoid a recession in 2020. With low imported gas prices, progress with the gas market liberalization and success in pushing up shale gas production, the window of a golden age for gas has opened up again in China.
Turkey’s New Gas Discovery in the Black Sea and Its Potential Implications
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Turkey’s biggest gas discovery ever on August 21, 2020. Initial findings show that the estimated reserve capacity is 320 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas.
Navalny Poisoning Raises Pressure on Merkel to Cancel Russian Pipeline
Evidence that the Russian opposition leader was attacked with a military-grade nerve agent has placed new pressures on the German chancellor.
Mozambique: Security, Political and Geopolitical Challenges of the Gas Boom
The vast gas discoveries in Mozambique, some 160 trillion cubic feet (4,530 billion cubic meters), will make this very poor country (6th lowest gross national income (GNI) per capita – the lowest in Africa) one of the world’s future major producers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) within two decades.
Russia’s Energy Strategy-2035: Struggling to Remain Relevant
Russia’s Energy Strategy to 2035 (ES-2035) enters, finally, the home stretch. The Ministry of Energy submitted its version of the document to the Russian Government in early October 2019.
The Development of Hydrocarbons in East Africa: Political and Security Challenges
East Africa has the potential to experience a gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) export boom in the coming years due to several projects that have been released.
China’s Quest for Blue Skies: The Astonishing Transformation of the Domestic Gas Market
China’s gas industry has been moving into a new era. China’s natural gas demand has skyrocketed amid a state campaign that encourages coal-to-gas switching. In just two years, China added 75 billion cubic meters (bcm) to global gas demand, the equivalent of the UK gas market, the second largest European market. Despite steadily rising, Chinese gas production has not been able to cope with such a huge increase in demand and gas imports have also surged.
China’s Quest for Gas Supply Security: The Global Implications
The major transformations that are occurring on the Chinese gas market have profound repercussions on the global gas and LNG markets, especially on trade, investment and prices. In just two years, China has become the world’s first gas importer and is on track to become the largest importer of Liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Russia-Ukraine Gas Relations: The Mother of All Crises or a New Start to 2030?
Ten years after the January 2009 gas crisis, Russian-Ukrainian gas relations are at another turning point: the then concluded contracts are terminating on 31 December 2019. While trilateral talks brokered by the European Commission (EC) have started in July 2018, the real negotiations about the future of this relationship can be expected to start no earlier than in December, that is in the midst of the winter and a second to midnight. Crucial months lie ahead.
Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega on Global Energy, Valdai Discussion Club
Marc-Antoine Eyl-Mazzega, director of Ifri’s Centre for Energy, discusses various issues related to the energy market, from the strategic move of Russia towards Saudi Arabia and the role of the United States to the recent prices collapses and gas crises.
The Next Wave of Global LNG Investment Is Coming
With an annual growth of 10% in 2017 to 290 million tons (Mt) and 8.3% in the first half of 2018, Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) demand is rising faster than expected. Accounting for 44% of global demand growth in 2017, China is the main driver of the growth as the government has made natural gas a key policy choice to reduce air pollution and restructure its high-carbon energy mix.
The Trump-led Trade War with China: Energy Dominance Self-destructed?
Under particular US legal rationale, such as calling foreign imports a “national security threat”, President Donald Trump has started imposing tariffs and/or quotas and has launched national security investigations on a growing number of imported goods from US allies and others alike.
L’Égypte, nouvelle plateforme gazière en Méditerranée orientale
Recent offshore gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean, primarily in Egypt as well as in Israel, but also around Cyprus, are dramatically changing these countries' energy perspectives and economies, and also influence geopolitical balances in the region.
Romania: a key player in the Energy Union for the security of natural gas supply?
In 2015, Maroš Šefcovic, Vice President of the European Commission for Energy Union, was writing about Romania as being «at a crossroads - both in strategic and physical terms.
New and Emerging LNG Markets: The Demand Shock
Over the past decade, an increasing number of emerging markets has joined the liquefied natural gas (LNG) import club.
Trump's Tax Reform and Trade Policy: Renewables Spared, Oil Industry Wins
The energy sector is one where the break between the Trump and Obama administrations is the most pronounced. The three officials in charge, Rick Perry at the Department of Energy (DoE), Scott Pruitt at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Ryan Zinke at the head of the Department of the Interior (DoI), share the same indifference to the issue of climate change, the same will to encourage oil and gas production in the USA in order to bring an era of American “energy dominance”, the same desire to promote the extraction of “beautiful, clean coal”, to paraphrase President Trumps’s State of the Union address, and the same deep mistrust of renewable energies such as wind and solar.
The Gazprom-Naftogaz Stockholm Arbitration Awards: Time for Settlements and Responsible Behaviour
The signing in January 2009 of the gas supply and transit contracts between Gazprom and Naftogaz marked a turning point in Russian-Ukrainian gas relations: yearly intergovernmental, last minute and non-transparent winter deals were replaced by a predictable, long term commercial relationship.
What Perspectives on the US Oil Policy ?
This Edito highlights how oil, since its discovery in 1859, has played a major role in the US international policy and economy throughout decades, becoming a key tool of the american leadership.
The Political and Commercial Dynamics of Russia's Gas Export Strategy
A wide-ranging look at the way Gazprom interacts with an increasingly challenging global gas market for Russia.
The US Shale Oil Revolution: The Test of the Business Model is Underway
Since 2010, the United States has been undergoing a second shale revolution with the very rapid development of Light Tight Oil (LTO) or shale oil, following the revolution in shale gas. This development has allowed the production of oil and liquids to increase, so that the US is the world’s largest producer today, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Gazprom in Europe: a Business Doomed to Fail?
The construction of what is nowadays called European energy policy is an ongoing process that officially started with the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, and has not yet been entirely finalized. It took several decades to move from a Community composed of six countries to a policy – not fully fledged – intended to strengthen as much as possible cohesion between 28 EU member states in the energy sector.
Raising the Costs to President Putin
-by building dissonance within. Some like to remember fondly the call by Ronald Reagan for Gorbachev “to tear down this wall”. The United States “Won the Cold War” said George Bush Senior in his State of the Union Address. We need to step back and recognize with some humility that the Soviet Union fell largely of its own weight rather than as a result of external pressure. Again today Russia is economically weak. It has become an exporter of raw materials, its industrial sector is weak, and its revenues are already falling. Conditions now offer the opportunity to aggravate Russia’s economic frailty – let’s focus on that.
Middle East Oil and Gas Producers: Soon to Be Back in the Lead?
The World Energy Outlook 2013 published by the IEA confirms that despite the rise of unconventional fuels in particular in the US, Middle East will by the mid-2020s retake its place as the world major oil and gas supplier, providing most of the increase in global supplies. Well, there are some big ifs.
Ukraine: Is Europe Ready for Another Gas Cut?
The turmoil in Ukraine is now putting one question on everyone mouth: what if Russian gas transiting through Ukraine was cut once again? Today, Ukrainian gas pipelines still carry around 60% of the Russian gas intended for the European Union; i.e. around 16% of the EU final gas consumption.
The Impact of the Development of Shale Gas in the United States on Europa's Petrochemical Industries
The shale gas revolution has led to strong falls in energy prices, reducing significantly the raw material costs of the US petrochemical industry. Between 2008 and 2012, US gas prices fell by two thirds.
Dynamics and drivers of shale gas development in three European countries: can a European policy be imagined?
The European Commission introduced in its Work Programme 2013 an action regarding “Environmental climate and energy assessment framework to enable safe and secure unconventional hydrocarbon extraction”.
How is Russia Adapting to a Threatening New Energy World?
The US shale gas revolution has shaken global gas markets. The US is on the eve of becoming self-sufficient in natural gas (and oil), thanks to the massive discoveries of unconventional resources on their territory, while being able to export part of their production. These developments have been closely watched by traditional oil and gas producers.
The European Gas Market: A Reality Check
With the approach of the 2014 deadline for the completion of a truly European liberalized energy market, there is growing concern on the adequacy of the market structure with the changed economic and geopolitical environment. Market-based and short-term approaches have been fostered for both gas and electricity markets. Energy and climate policies have therefore a primary function in designing the basic rules for these markets to develop.
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