Soviet Energy Supplies as a Factor in East-West Relations

Jochen Bethkenhagen
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Jochen Bethkenhagen: German Institute for Economic Research

Chapter 8 in East-West Economic Relations in the Changing Global Environment, 1986, pp 131-143 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The USSR has been able to secure a growing share of the Western European energy market during the past decade. This applies particularly to natural gas supplies to some Western European countries; but lately it has been true of oil consumption as well (see Tables 8.1 and 8.2). The USSR probably owes the increases in its shares to the following factors: (a) Soviet energy prices are usually lower than the average prices of other suppliers. If more favourable alternatives had been avail-able (such as Norwegian natural gas), companies certainly would not have signed contracts with the USSR. (b) Drawing on USSR energy is also considered a way to increase security by diversifying the sources of supply. The fact that the USSR has always fulfilled its contracts faithfully lends weight to this point of view; the same cannot be said of energy suppliers from other regions (OPEC oil embargo, USA and Canadian uranium embargo). (c) Natural gas does not significantly emit harmful substances; expanding it as an energy source thus serves the goal of an ecologically sound energy supply.

Keywords: Central Intelligence Agency; Hard Currency; Country Experience; CMEA Country; Energy Export (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1986
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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-18400-2_8

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