EU fossil fuel imports and changes after Ukrainian crisis

Abstract

Russian-Ukrainian relations brought several challenges for the European energy security due to transportation corridors crossing the territory. Gas crisis in several CEE countries in early 2009 revealed brittle energy supplies stability of the net importers. The conflict in east Ukraine has brought new challenges for gas and oil shipments crossing the transport routes of Ukraine. Authors analyse transport corridors, presence of Nord Stream I and Nord Stream II projects as possible determinants of the importance of Ukrainian transport corridor and clarify exported volumes of fossil fuels from Russia to EU using the pipelines. The main objective of the article is to determine to what extent new transport routes for gas and oil by passing Ukraine will determine Slovak economy in the field of energy security as well as fiscal revenues. At the broader level, authors analyse potential effects for the whole EU in the field of energy security, transport costs but also CO2 footprint when using alternatives to pipelines. Article synthetises alternatives to Russian energy shipments, predominantly to CEE, and possible costs stemming from Ukrainian political changes. An added value of the article lies in analysis of the difference between commercial benefits of Russian supplies besides import dependence, regional effects and general energy policy goals fulfilment.