IS RUSSIA TO CONTINUE AS A RELIABLE SUPPLIER FOR NATURAL GAS TO EUROPE?
Dimitris B. Kokkinos
Managing Partner
INDEURCOG Energy Consultants Ltd.
Copyright: www.rieas.gr
Note: The paper was delivered by Mr. Dimitris B. Kokkinos at the Conference “Caspian Energy Crossroads: The New Energy Routes and Axis”, organized by RIEAS and the Press Code Journal at Titania Hotel (29 January 2009) in Athens, Greece.
My ten years of involvement as an E.C. external consultant and my position INOGATE coordinator in a number of Inogate projects gave me a good understanding of the hydrocarbon situation in Russia, Central Asia, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe.
I consider the link between the European Union and RUSSIA in the supply and consumption of natural gas as vital to the European Union interests and I contribute this article stating that the views expressed are strictly my own.
The present state of affairs in the supply of Russian Gas to Europe underwent an acute crisis. The acuteness of this crisis does not however make it short. The many parameters of this crisis threaten to make it endemic.
There is no doubt that a main factor of the Gas dispute is the political quarrel between Russia and Ukraine. Russia considers that Ukraine is almost not a state but a mix of Russian and other peoples and its Government and ruling elite are neither trustworthy nor strong, which is not completely wrong.