Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[SecondWar]

SvennoJ said:

Overall, Russia supplies about one-third of European natural gas consumption, used for winter heating as well as electricity generation and industrial production. The European Union (EU) also turns to Russia for more than one-quarter of its crude oil imports, the bloc’s largest single energy source.

Some EU states are far more dependent than others. Portugal and Spain use little Russian energy, while Germany, the largest European economy, gets more than half of its natural gas and more than 30 percent of its crude oil supplies from Russia. France gets most of its electricity from nuclear power but still relies on Russian imports to meet its fossil fuel needs. Analysts say plans in Germany and other countries to phase out nuclear and coal power could increase this dependence.

I’ve posted something along these lines as well. My guess is Germany might try to reactivate some of its nuclear reactors (if that’s possible) but also there will be a scramble to source oil&gas from elsewhere. Places like Nigeria and Saudi Arabia might be beneficiaries, Norway as well but I’ve read elsewhere that they are at capacity. There probably already is behind-the-scenes lobbying by oil execs in the US on the matter to get increased demand for the US oil industry.

Personally, I’d prefer the Russian gas was replaced by renewables but that seems unlikely in the short-term.

Last edited by SecondWar - on 26 February 2022