Central Europe Digest: Empty Pipelines

Scaremongering and complacency are the two poles of Europe’s energy politics. Wind back ten years and the complacent camp had the upper hand. Russia was seen almost everywhere as a friendly country that reliably delivered large amounts of gas to its Western European customers, such as Germany’s Ruhrgas. Admittedly, Russia’s gas industry was old-fashioned and wasteful, but the country was hungry for Western know-how and investment. If the giant state-owned Gazprom didn’t modernize, then thrusting competitors such as the Yukos Oil Company would fill the gap. HERE