The Russian Federation supplies a significant volume of fossil fuels and
is the largest exporter of oil and natural gas to the European Union. In
2007, the European Union imported from Russia 185 million tonnes of crude oil,
which accounted for 32.6% of total oil import, and 100.7 million tonnes of oil
equivalent of natural gas, which accounted 38.7% of total gas import.
The Urengoy–Pomary–Uzhgorod pipeline was constructed in 1982–1984 with Western
financing to provide Soviet gas to the Western European market.
The Russian state-owned company Gazprom exports natural gas to Europe. It also
controls a large number of subsidiaries, including various infrastructure assets.
According to the study published by the Research Centre for East European
Studies, the liberalization of the EU gas market has driven Gazprom's
expansion in Europe by increasing its share in the European downstream market.
It has established sale subsidiaries in many of its export markets, and has also
invested in access to industrial and power generation sectors in Western and
Central Europe. In addition, Gazprom has established joint ventures to build
natural gas pipelines and storage depots in a number of European countries.
Transneft, a Russian state-owned company responsible for the national oil
pipelines, is another Russian company supplying energy to Europe.
In September 2002 the European Commission has opened formal proceedings
to investigate whether Gazprom is hindering competition in Central and
Eastern European gas markets, in breach of EU competition law. In particular,
the Commission is looking into Gazprom's usage of ‘no resale’ clauses in supply
contracts, alleged prevention of diversification of gas supplies, and
imposition of unfair pricing by linking oil and gas prices in long-term
contacts. The Russian Federation responded by issuing a blocking
legislation, which introduced a default rule prohibiting Russian strategic
firms, including Gazprom, to comply with any foreign measures or requests.
Compliance is made subject to a prior permission granted by the Russian
government. History
In the early 1980s there were American efforts, led by the Reagan
administration, to convince European countries through which a proposed
Soviet gas pipeline was to be built to deny firms responsible for construction
the ability to purchase supplies and parts for the pipeline and associated
facilities. The pipeline was built despite these protests and the rise of
large Russian gas firms such as Gazprom as well as increased Russian fossil fuel
production has facilitated a large expansion in the quantity of gas
supplied to the European market since the 1990s.
Natural gas deliveries In 2007, 38.7% of the European Union's
natural gas total imports and 24.3% of consumed natural gas originated from
Russia. As of 2009, Russian natural gas was delivered to Europe through 12
pipelines, of which three were direct pipelines, four through Belarus and five
through Ukraine. In 2011, an additional pipeline, Nord Stream, opened.
The largest importers of Russian gas in the European Union are Germany and
Italy, accounting together for almost half of the EU gas imports from Russia.
Other larger Russian gas importers in the European Union are France, Hungary,
Czech Republic, Poland, Austria and Slovakia. The largest non-EU importers
of Russian natural gas are Ukraine, Turkey and Belarus.
According to the European Commission, the share of Russian natural gas in the
member states' domestic gas consumption in 2007 was the following:
The shares of Russian natural gas in the domestic gas consumption in non-EU
countries in Europe were in 2006: Republic of Macedonia 100%
Belarus 98% Montenegro 87%
Serbia 87% Ukraine 66%
Turkey 64% Switzerland 12%
At the same time, the variety of national policies and stances of larger
exporters versus larger dependents of Russian gas, together with the
segmentation of the European gas market, has become a prominent issue in European
politics toward Russia, with significant geopolitical implications for economic
and political ties between the EU and Russia. These ties have occasionally led
to calls for greater European energy diversity, although such efforts are
complicated by the fact that many European customers have long term legal
contracts for gas deliveries despite the disputes, most of which stretch beyond
2025–2030. See also
Energy policy of Russia Energy policy of the European Union
Foreign relations of Russia Russian influence operations
European countries by fossil fuel use European countries by electricity
consumption per person References