欧洲天然气供应 (1)

For years, western European countries have worried about their access to gas, almost two-fifths of which is supplied by Russian pipes. These fears have not receded since in 2014 Russia cut off gas to Ukraine, the main thoroughfare through which its gas arrives in EU countries.

Three times since 2006, rows with Russia have stopped gas flowing through Ukrainian pipelines, leaving customers down the line shivering. EU leaders have long pondered other sources, such as American LNG, but the latter is far more expensive.

Such worries have flared again even as, in 2018, imports of Russian gas by EU countries reached a record high. On December 29th Russia rejected European demands to release 24 Ukrainian sailors detained after it seized three of its neighbour's ships in November.

Ukraine is calling for fresh sanctions on Russia, raising the risk that it might once more cut off supplies. Meanwhile, European politicians are also fretting about Nord Stream 2 (NS2),

a planned pipeline that would carry more Russian gas under the Baltic Sea directly to Germany. On December 12th the European Parliament passed a resolution calling for the project to be cancelled, citing security reasons,

but with 370km of pipes already laid it looks hard to stop. Another tack is to develop alternative conduits and supplies.

On December 7th Italian authorities gave the final approval for the construction of the last leg of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), an EU scheme to import natural gas from the Caspian region.

The project is more than three-quarters complete and workers are beginning to extend the pipeline beneath the Adriatic Sea to Italy. If all goes according to plan, a $40bn jigsaw of pipes from Azerbaijan will start supplying western Europe from 2020.

But instead of increasing energy security, the SGC may do more to emphasise how hard it is for Europe to reduce its dependence on Russia. Planners in the European Commission had initially proposed the construction of a pipeline from Iran or Turkmenistan.

But Iran is under sanctions and Turkmenistan sells most of its gas production to China, hence the shift to import from Azerbaijan.