Energy security case study cards

• Largest supplies of oil globally
• Security and political stability are vital in the Middle East; if the rest of the world wants to depend on its supplies 
• Attacks in Abqaiq; produce 6.8 million barrels in a day (75% of Saudi's output) and 9/11 want to reduce dependency 
• OPEC: stabilise and safeguard the price of oil for its members
• net exporter
• Larger populations more interested in revenue
• Smaller populations more interested in stability 

• Worlds largest energy company
• Worlds 3rd largest company; Exxon Mobil and General Electric 
• Provide Russia with 92% of energy and EU with 30%
• Russian governemnt have 50.002% stake 
• 2006: 430,000 employed
• 2004: Orange Revolution; Russia quadrupled proces 
• 2008: Ukraine looking to join NATO and EU; again cut supplies 
• Should EU be worried about their energy securtiy?
• In short, NO; the European markets are too valuable to lose. 

• Energy intensive
• 2 tonnes of mined sands required to produce one barrel of oil; high waste products
• Requires 2-5 barrels of water for one barrel of oil; water conflicts
• 470 sq km of forest cleared
• 130km 2 of toxic wastewater 
• Remote area; requires opencast mining
• Reduce USA's reliance on Middle East
• By 2030 will account for 16% of USA's oil demands 
• Most oil supplies reached peak oil' reduce dependency (seek alternative sources) 
• Parallel example: ANWR region
• Frontier hydrocarbons: lower grade of oil than conventional sources. 

• Longest and most expensive pipeline ever built (new energy pathway)
• The Russian, Chinese and Japanese governments all interested for geopolitical reasons:

China:

• Needs energy to fuel economic growth 
• Strait of Malacca is vulnerbale; existing energy pathway
• China and Russia have a joint political interest over the issue of US military presence 
• China and Russia have a joint political interest over the issue of US militatry presence in Central Asia

Japan:

• Almost no oil reserves of its own
• 2007; Japan imported 76% of its oil from Middle East ESPO could reduce Japan's oil dependency on the Middle East by 10-15%

• 2000-2001:
• Summer of 2000 unusually hot, winter 2000-1 was unusually cold 
• Insufficient generating capacity 
• Deregulation of power industry in 1996 
• Manipulation of the Californian energy market; ENron wealthy US energy company; used supply and demand mechanism to ensure that energy prices remained high.

They did this by:

• obscuring origin of electricity 
• deliberately reserving more power line usage than required. (overscheduling)

State declared that  by 2010 20% of California's energy must come from renewable sources. 

• Need energy for urbanisation
• Up until 1993 it was self-sufficient in oil
• Production at China's largest oil fields now peaked and eploration has begun for new fields
• In its search for oil China is trawling the world; its foreign policy could now be said to be "resource based" 

Japans energy insecurity:

• Japan's energy dependency is 80%
• Japan is the largest economy in Asia, yet it has the smallest energy reserves of any major economy
• 99% of its oil and gas is imported and energy security has long been a core goal of its domestic and foreing policy
• SInce the collapse of the USSR, Japan has been seeking to reduce its dependence on the Middle East by engaging with the new Central Asian countries. 
• ESPO pipeline.