Security of energy supply for the European Union

Abstract

Security of energy supply is a recurrent concept in national energy policies and also at the European and worldwide levels. In November 2000, the European Commission issued a green paper “Towards a European Strategy on Energy Supply Security”. This report carried a strong warning about European dependence on imported energy that could increase from 50 percent in 2000 to 70 percent in 2020-2030. The European Parliament and the Council passed their agreements, stressing the importance to minimize the risks of dependency both by the EU and the member states. Since then, terrorist attacks, storms, accidents, blackouts, wars, surges in fuel prices are threatening directly energy supply. In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico brought a new dimension to security of energy supply. Unlike the crises of the ‘70s or the Gulf crisis of 1990-91, Katrina did not involve just crude oil supply: It includes natural gas production, oil and gas transport, refineries and electricity in one of the most energy intensive area in the world. The whole tightly interconnected energy system has been hit. Proponents of oil security reserves in the United-States and at the OECD level never thought that the second major use of reserves – the first being in the 1990-91 Gulf crises – would be for a domestic oil supply disruption in the US.