"Security of supply" is a term I was unfamiliar with until I arrived in Europe to work in the politically charged energy sector. Along, with issues such as cost and emissions, security of supply is a main driver of energy policy in Europe. Security of supply refers to how confident we can be that our energy supplies will be there in the future. In Canada, where we have an abundance of pretty much all types of raw energy, security of supply is, thankfully, not an issue. In Europe, however, where most of their oil and gas is imported from often shady parts of the world, the drive for increased security of supply never waivers. Russia in particular still accounts for much of the natural gas consumed in Europe. This is likely a factor in Europe's slow and tepid response to Russia's clearly illegal actions in Ukraine.
Security of supply is not a new idea. The French were the first to address this issue in the early 1970s. After the first Arab oil shock they converted pretty much all of their power generating stations over to nuclear power. This cost tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars but the French feel it was worth it. Similarly, the United States has been striving for energy independence ever since that first Arab oil embargo.
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 opened the massive and underdeveloped oil and gas reserves of Russia to the world market. This is why oil was trading at under $10/barrell in the late 1990s. It is also why Western European countries raced to build as many gas fired power stations as they could; the so called "dash for gas". They were taking advantage of cheap Russian gas, but they were also exposing themselves to political instability in Russia. Furthermore, because there is only one pipeline from the gas fields in Siberia through to consumers in Western Europe, Europe was also vulnerable to political turmoil in all of the formerly Soviet countries along the pipeline route. One of those volatile countries is Ukraine and that risk turned into reality in 2005.
In 2005, Ukraine and Russia become engaged in a dispute over the price of natural gas. Ukraine decided to raise the stakes by blocking Russian exports of gas to Europe that had to travel through Ukraine. This had a disastrous impact on Europe, (it was winter at the time) and all of a sudden, security of supply was front and centre for Europeans once again. Many promises were made for Europe to wean itself of cheap but risky natural gas.
However, despite significant efforts to transition to renewables and nuclear power, Europe is still largely dependent on Russian gas. This is undoubtedly a factor in Europe's sluggish response to the current crisis in Crimea. George Bush admitted that Americans were addicted to cheap oil and now hopefully Europe will similarly admit that they are addicted to cheap Russian gas. Ukrainians would no doubt agree.
