Energy Voice: Is shale gas the answer to Europe’s energy independence?

When Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Ukraine in a disagreement over unpaid energy bills in the winter of 2009, many countries in eastern Europe were plunged into freezing cold. At the time, 80% of Europe’s gas flowed from Russia through Ukraine and the supply interruption left Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania and others without their primary source of heating. While Moscow and Kiev played a blame game for the crisis, people had to find an alternative solution and went back to wood burning fires to keep warm.

The current Ukrainian deja vu reminds us just how vulnerable Europe remains to a Russia-dominated energy market. Russia still supplies 30% of Europe’s oil and gas. That’s better than the 38% it supplied in 2009, but a third of Russia’s natural gas exports to Europe still have to transit Ukraine. Gazprom supplies more than half of the gas Ukraine uses each year, whilst Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Bulgaria continue to rely on Russia for close to 100% of their gas imports.
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