Europe Rethinks Energy Options

Europe gives Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned natural gas company, quite a lot of business. The Russian monopoly supplies Western Europe with a full quarter of its gas needs, and is projected to supply fully half its needs by 2020.

Consider that 80 percent of that supply goes through a pipeline in the Ukraine, and you can see why Europe got extremely nervous last week when Russia cut off Ukraine’s gas.

Though both Moscow and Kiev reached an agreement on pricing—meaning gas flow could resume to Ukraine—this minor energy crisis has Europe contemplating its alternatives.

“We have to draw consequences from what happened, not just on gas but also regarding oil and electricity,” Austria’s economics minister said. “Dependency on Russia should be reduced.”

“We now see with the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine how quickly we can become vulnerable,” said Edmund Stoiber, governor of Bavaria.

Unfortunately for Europe, the alternatives seem to be few.

One option includes an underwater pipeline straight from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. Construction on this project began early last month and is scheduled to be completed in 2010.

But the question remains, what if Gazprom gets in a tiff with Berlin and decides to cut off its supply too? “If maybe the Bundestag [Germany’s lower house of parliament] passes something that doesn’t please Gazprom, then all of a sudden our gas delivery will be shut off,” one politician said. In response to this possibility, Germany—Gazprom’s biggest customer within Europe—is rethinking its plan to phase out its nuclear energy program; a cabinet meeting will tackle that subject this week.

Another option for Europe presents an even more troubling scenario: returning to the Middle East for its energy. “The [opec] crises of the 1970s forced the Europeans to diversify their oil sources away from the Middle East,” related Stratfor in a January 3 analysis. “The Ukraine crisis of 2006 could be what ultimately drives them to go back to the region for natural gas.”

One project is planned, though only to be finished five years from now, to import energy from the Caspian region, from nations like Iran, through Turkey into Europe—a pipeline called Nabucco, the Italian word for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the title of a Verdi opera about the same king’s invasion of Jerusalem in the 6th century b.c.

But will the Middle East of the coming decade become a more stable environment—considering present trends? Will the flowering of democracy stabilize the region—considering that voters are electing Islamists to influential governmental positions? Does the rise of nuclear-aspiring Iran as the region’s hegemon bode well for energy politics in the near future?

For more than a decade, our editor in chief has foretold of bullying tactics by Iran that would “push” Europe over the edge—inviting a blitzkrieg attack from the Europeans. This is based on a prophecy in Daniel 11 that shows Europe, a resurrection of the old Roman Empire—an outgrowth of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon—marching into the Middle East, partially to secure its energy supplies. Read our free booklet The King of the South for more on this.

Europe’s energy issues will play a significant part in bringing Bible prophecy to pass. With the engines of this formidable global power needing fuel, and present sources proving to be so unpredictable, we can expect that before long Europe will get its act together and move to secure its energy through militaristic means.