The year 2020 was very difficult for the energy sector, and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have negative effects on it. Despite all challenges, however, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) was completed and began commercial operations on 15 November 2020. The TAP is the European leg of the Southern Gas Corridor that transports gas to […]
Download: Energy Security Research Brief No. 2 January 2021 (11 pages, 315KB) Title: The Opening of the Southern Gas CorridorAuthor: Mariana LiakopoulouSeries: Energy Security Program Research Brief No. 2Date: January 2021 The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) is a 3,500-kilometre network of three pipelines: the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), Trans- Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline […]
This edited transcript of a 40-minute podcast interview (1 November 2020) covers the Caspian Sea’s legal regime, national interests of its littoral states, Turkey’s role in Euro-Caspian energy security, American and Chinese interests in the region, and why the Caspian Sea’s significance will increase still more in future.
Title: NATO-Area Energy Security: The Southeast European FlankFeatured Speakers: Dr. Robert M. Cutler Senior Research Fellow and Director, Energy Security Program NAOC; Dr. Aura Sabadus Senior Reporter, ICIS London ; Mariana Liakopoulou Research Fellow, Energy Security Program NAOC ; Dr. Cyril Widdershoven Founder and Sr. Advisor Geopolitics and Country Risk Verocy B.V. Series: Energy Security Program Webinar […]
Following the Dutch discovery of the Groningen field, and British, Norwegian and Danish discoveries in the North Sea during the 1960s and 1970s, natural gas appeared to offer Europe an opportunity to decrease its dependence on Middle Eastern oil. However, demand for gas quickly outpaced supply, leading West European buyers increasingly to rely on Soviet […]
The energy security of NATO members in Europe will receive a further boost as the European Union has opened a new Delegation in Turkmenistan. This Delegation supersedes the lower-level liaison office through which relations had been conducted up until now. The move follows the European Council’s adoption of a new “EU Strategy for Central Asia,” […]
Diplomatic momentum is gaining on all fronts in favor of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline (TCGP) between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. Both Russian and American diplomats tacitly agree that this is a positive development. Thus last week the new U.S. Ambassador to Georgia (and former Ambassador to Azerbaijan) Ross Wilson publicly stated that “transport projects implemented jointly […]
This article is an end-of-year review looking at the EU’s and Turkey’s position in three potential maritime conflict situations: first, the Caspian Sea basin; and then the Black Sea and East Mediterranean basins together. The most significant development in Caspian Sea energy in 2018 was the signature of the Convention on the Status of the […]
The Arab Spring threw a wrench into Egypt’s promising liquified natural gas (LNG) industry. Now, with stability returned to that country and the discovery of new gas deposits in the Nile littoral, Egypt is poised to become a major source of energy to the E.U. market. As auspicious as this sounds, it raises the stakes in an already volatile region marked by militarization and beset by inter-state strife and transcontinental tension.
Attempts to commercialize the East Mediterranean natural gas province continue still with difficulty. The gas deposits in the Cyprus offshore continue to be at the centre of attention, while those of Israel and Egypt are set in relation to those. The issue that preoccupies observers is how to market the gas from Cyprus in Europe. […]