The Oil Drum

Jerome a Paris seems to feel that I am being somewhat hard on Gazprom, and that I should recognize that they are a good provider with a more than adequate reserve, and that I should therefore, I suppose, shut up.

At the risk of being a tad repetitive, let me therefore explain, and clarify, some of my concerns. To begin let me state that very obviously Gazprom and Russian interests are not the same as those of the West. Gazprom has every right to run their business to their own advantage, and that is not the major point of concern. However, what has to be of concern to the governments of each nation that it supplies with natural gas, is the reliability and price of the product that it is marketing. If those countries come to rely increasingly on Russian supply, then any disruption in that supply can have significant domestic consequences. Typically these shortages seem to fall in the winter, at a time where, as we learned from Colorado last spring, severe weather can limit production from gas fields. It is at those times that domestic power consumption goes up. And while not trying to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, I have to cough gently and point out, to some of our readers (though not Jerome), that electricity does not magically appear out of an outlet.