GEOPOLITICS and OIL

What do you understand by the terms geopolitics and energy crisis?

Geopolitics: the political relations among nations, particularly relating to claims and disputes
pertaining to borders, territories and resources

What are energy pathways and why are they so important?

Energy pathways: the flows of energy from producer to consumer. Pathways can take the form
of oil pipelines, gas pipelines, electricity power lines and sea routes of tankers. They allow
energy trade.

Discuss Russia's role in geopolitics.

The country is one of the biggest producers and exporters of oil and gas in the world, as
countries nearby it rely a lot on its energy. Europe is increasingly depended and its Baltic states
are 100% reliant on Russia's energy resources.

Why does the USA have a strategic petroleum reserve?

It was concerned by the political leverage linked with imported oil.

What is resource nationalization and why has it occurred in some countries?

Resource nationalism: the tendency of people and governments to assert control over natural
resources located on their territory.

Read p251-252 and then create a case study that illustrates the impact of Geopolitics
(involving Russia and its neighboring countries) on the consumption of oil and gas (in the
countries that import oil/gas). Include the following information in your case study:

Which country is the main producer of oil and gas in Europe? Name country, name company,
give facts/figures about oil and gas production in the country

Russia

Gazprom is a state company with monopoly on Russian gas exports.

Baltic states are 100% reliant on Russia's energy resources.

Russia- 23% of gas consumption in the EU

Which countries are the consumers of this oil/gas? Name countries that depend on imported
oil/gas

Germany , then Ukraine and then Italy.

How is oil/gas distributed to the consumer countries?

Gazprom has an extensive pipeline network that distributes both oil and gas.
Describe the geopolitical incident that involved Belarus in 2007. What was the issue? Which
countries were affected? How were they affected? What was the impact on consumption?

Belarus cut off a 4000km transit pipeline that carried 1.2 million barrels a day of Russian oil to
a number of countries such as Germany, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Czech Republic and
Slovakia. Their economy was affected negatively as they are countries reliant on the
pipeline. Consumption of oil decreased as price of oil increased.

Describe the response taken by the EU to limit its dependence on oil and gas from Russia as a
result of the unreliability of supply (due to geopolitical issues).

Diversify supply, build more terminals for the import of liquefied natural gas and build
interconnecting pipelines and power lines.
NUCLEAR ENERGY
What is OPEC?

OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries): an intergovernmental organization

comprising 14 oil producing nations

six in the Middle East (Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq), one in
Southeast Asia (Indonesia), five in Africa (Algeria, Angola, Nigeria, Libya, Gabon) and two in
South America (Ecuador, Venezuela).

A cartel is an agreement between competing countries to control prices

OPEC is a cartel as the member countries control the production of oil in order to maintain
high oil prices

Explain the growing importance of nuclear power as a source of energy in the UK

(give reasons why the government is investing in nuclear energy- refer to global warming,
ability to meet base-load demand, political conflict, costs of production)

An increase in greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. Nuclear power as a low-carbon
form of energy production.

-Nuclear power is the only readily available large scale alternative to fossil fuels for production
of the continuous, reliable supply of electricity that is essential to meet the minimum constant
demand (base-load demand). Wind, solar and tidal power are variable sources and cannot
meet base-load demand. In effect this means that for every new wind farm, an increase in
fossil fuel or nuclear capacity is needed to accompany it.

Fear from supply of energy imported.

An increase in oil and gas prices have improved the economics of nuclear power for electricity.
Unlike fossil-fuel generation technologies, fluctuations in fuel prices do not significantly affect
the cost of electricity from nuclear power stations/

Task 2: read the information below (pro's and con's as well as two case studies)

Pros:

Cons:

there is always the risk of nuclear accidents like the Chernobyl accident in the Ukraine and
Fukushima in Japan

There is a risk that nuclear power stations will become terrorist targets or that nuclear
material will fall into the hands of terrorists.

Transporting nuclear material and nuclear waste s risk and expensive.

Nuclear power stations only have a limited life period and the cost of decommissioning them is
expensive.
There is a belief that living next to nuclear power stations can increase the risk of cancers
(leukemia).

People don't want nuclear power stations built near where they live i.e. NIMBY

Mining for uranium is dangerous and can be polluting

Nuclear waste remains radioactive for thousands of years.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Local scale strategies

What is community energy?

Energy produced close to the point of consumption

Read the following article about community energy in Honiton, Exeter (UK). Referring to the
example, explain how the production of community energy be seen as conservation measure?

What is micro generation and how will it help increase energy efficiency?

Generators producing eletricity with an output of less than 50kw

National scale strategies

State three measure government can introduce to promote energy conservation

Improve public transport to encourage higher levels of usage

Set a high level of tax on petrol. aviation fuel, etc.

Ensure that public utility of vehicles are energy efficient

Encourage recycling

Read p28 and summarize the ways Germany is attempting to be more sustainable in energy
production

Germany boasts a $5billion photovoltaic industry which accounts for 52% of the world's
installed solar panels.

In 2005 renewable energy accounted for 4.6% of Germany's primary energy supply and 10.2%
of its total electricity consumption.

5% of its electricity needs are from hydroelectricity

By early 2007, there were over 18000 wind turbines.

Read p280-281 and summarize Australia's national strategy on energy efficiency (2209-2020)

Production of crude oil fell 21% in the sic years to 2009, ands its export of oil and refined
products dropped 31%.

National Startegy on Energy Efficiency 2009-20.

Assisting households and businesses in transition to a low-carbon future

Roof insulation and solar hot water systems, auditing of the energy efficiency of publib housing
stock and consideration of implementing cost-efficiency upgraded.
reducing impediments to the uptake of energy efficiency

Improve the extent and accessibility of imformation and advice to households, businesses,
broadening the range of appliances covered by minimum energy erfomance standars to rapid
deployment of energy-efficiency technologies.

Making building more energy efficient

Substantially increase the number of energy-efficient houses and commercial buildings, and to
raise the energy efficient of the existing building stock

Government working in partnership and leading the way

International strategies

Define and explain how these concepts can help conserve energy

carbon credit: a permit that allows an organization to emit a specified amount of greenhouse
gases; also called an emission permit

carbon trading: a company that does not use up the level of emissions it is entitled to, can sell
the remained of its entitlement to another company that pollutes above its entitlement.