Russian act demonstrates fragility of our energy security

12.42.50am GMT Tue 9th Jan 2007

No nation can take the wind from our sails (or our turbines); nor hold back the tides.

The vulnerability of Europe's energy security was highlighted again today by Russia's act of closing its oil pipeline running through Belarus. This sudden move by Russia is regrettable because, as the latest in a series of such acts, it further reduces Western confidence that Russia is a reliable business partner. The silver lining behind this particular cloud is that it provides a timely reminder of the vulnerability of our dependence on oil and gas sourced from regions of questionable political stability. We still have time to plan measures to deliver greater and more sustainable energy security for our future.

Russia has accused Belarus of stealing fuel from its pipeline carrying oil to the European Union. Belarus accuses Russia of refusing to pay a transit tax it has imposed on the energy flowing through the pipeline.

Whatever the truth of the dispute between these two parties, the immediate effect of Russia's surprise move is to cut off energy supplies contracted for by EU countries, notably Poland and Germany. Replacing these supplies on the spot market threatens of course a potential increase in the energy prices paid by consumers in Great Britain.

Philip James, Bristol East Liberal Democrats' Parliamentary spokesman said:

"Russia's recent actions are not those of the kind of reliable, customer-focused supplier European consumers have come to expect; on the contrary it raises suspicions that an increasing dependence on Russian fossil fuels leaves us increasingly more open to energy blackmail by a future, yet more assertive, Russian regime."

"As a society we are burning too much fossil fuel. Over less than 200 years we are putting back into the atmosphere carbon locked away in oil and gas formed over a period of 200 million years, or even longer. Almost doubling the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is changing the balance between the sun's energy reflected back into space and its energy absorbed by the atmosphere, leading to global climate change. It is in all our interests to reduce the greenhouse gases emitted through our over dependence on fossil fuels to meet our energy needs."

"Taken together, these two pressures - improving our energy security and our environmental security - demand a move to sources of energy that we do control and that do not release carbon dioxide when consumed."

Philip continued:

"That is why it is imperative we use the next ten years to move to an economy built on green, renewable energy technologies, enabling us to harvest geo-thermal, solar and lunar energies - clean and secure power from a combination of wind, wave and tidal sources."

"Nuclear fission does not provide the security we seek. The raw materials such as Uranium used for fuel must be mined; and the known reserves are limited. Should the nations of the world move to an economy based primarily on nuclear power, those finite supplies will be exhausted even more quickly. The political power conferred by those reserves on the regions where they are found would offer new and greater opportunities for the exercise of political influence bordering in the extreme on energy blackmail."

Philip remarked:

"If you believe no nation with such political and financial clout would ever succumb to the temptation to exercise such power, ask yourself whether this current government would have compromised the legal process in our country by its abject submission to the demands of a foreign power for the termination of a Serious Fraud Office investigation, if the nation in question had been a leading supplier of our oranges or oregano instead of our oil."

Related Links:

Russia oil row hits Europe supply [BBC].

Ukraine gas row hits EU supplies [BBC].