of reserves should last more than 35 years, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, yet Gasunie has now committed itself to buying 74 billion cubic meters of Russian gas during the next 20 years from a Siberian field more than 2,500 miles away. And don't forget the chronic corruption that has marred many Gazprom deals.
Gasunie's reasoning is not Dutch, but European. Natural gas accounts for 22 percent of Europe's power needs, and if natural gas supplants coal and nuclear as expected, that proportion could shoot up to 49 percent, according to Eurostat, the European Union's statistical agency.
Gasunie's reasoning is not Dutch, but European. Natural gas accounts for 22 percent of Europe's power needs, and if natural gas supplants coal and nuclear as expected, that proportion could shoot up to 49 percent, according to Eurostat, the European Union's statistical agency.
Yet aside from the North Sea, Europe has no significant gas reserves. And with Norway ramping up its gas production, the North Sea fields probably will be depleted in 25 to 30 years. Pipelines from the Middle East are problematic for security reasons.
Algerian gas shipped under the Mediterranean and liquefied natural gas shipped in by tanker will continue to supply Europe. But neither source can keep up with Europe's growing demand, particularly as the EU takes in 10 new members in a swathe from the Baltics to the Balkans - all of them importers of Russian natural gas.
Algerian gas shipped under the Mediterranean and liquefied natural gas shipped in by tanker will continue to supply Europe. But neither source can keep up with Europe's growing demand, particularly as the EU takes in 10 new members in a swathe from the Baltics to the Balkans - all of them importers of Russian natural gas.
That leaves Russia, holder of the world's largest natural gas reserves and a willing partner to Europe, as the logical prime supplier.
Gazprom already supplies Europe with 40 percent of its gas imports. That proportion will skyrocket in the years ahead as European reserves run out and Russian production increases.
Gazprom is also not the company it was six months ago. Alexei Miller, the new CEO, is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's old associates from St. Petersburg. Miller's appointment was more than a purging of the old guard;
Gazprom already supplies Europe with 40 percent of its gas imports. That proportion will skyrocket in the years ahead as European reserves run out and Russian production increases.
Gazprom is also not the company it was six months ago. Alexei Miller, the new CEO, is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's old associates from St. Petersburg. Miller's appointment was more than a purging of the old guard;