Energy Security and Natural Gas Markets in Europe. Lessons from the EU and United States

Moving beyond most conventional thinking about energy security in Europe which revolves around stability of supplies and the reliability of suppliers, this book presents the history of European policy-making regarding energy resources, including recent controversies about shale gas and fracking. Using the United States as a benchmark, the author tests the hypothesis that EU energy security is at risk primarily because of a lack of market integration and completion. This lack of integration prohibits natural gas to flow freely throughout the continent, which makes parts of Europe vulnerable in case of supply disruptions.

The book demonstrates that the EU gas market has been developing at different speeds, leaving the Northwest of the continent reasonably well integrated, with sufficient trade and liquidity and different supplies, whereas other parts are less developed. In these parts of Europe there is a structural lack of investments in infrastructure, interconnectors, reverse flow options and storage facilities. Thus single source dependency often prevails in these parts of Europe, leaving the relevant member states vulnerable to supply disruptions. Detailed comparisons are made of the situations in the Netherlands and Poland, and of energy policy in the United States. The book dismantles some of the existing assumptions about the concept of energy security, and touches upon the level of rhetoric that features in most energy security and policy debates in Europe.

Contents:
1. Europe’s Focus on Available Supplies
2. How to Analyse European Union Energy Security
3. EU Energy Policy to Date
4. Why External Suppliers Matter in Europe
5. A Structural Lack of Investment in Natural Gas Infrastructure
6. The Political Minefield Called European Shale Gas
7. Europe’s Future Gas Market Structure – Tracing the US Example
8. A Long Road to European Union Energy Security

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