The subject of big politics influencing the energy sector has been around for quite some time with a number of classical examples that are worth remembering, including the 1973 oil crisis, which tripled the average annual oil price, pushing it above $50 per barrel for the first time in the 20th century.

       There was also the 1979 crisis, when the average annual prices doubled and exceeded an equivalent of today’s $100 per barrel.Equally, the use of political pressure like the extra-territorial sanctions imposed by the United States is not new. There is a clear resemblance between the sanctions Ronald Reagan imposed on the construction of Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod gas pipeline and the efforts by the United States to thwart the Nord Stream 2 project.

       In an ideal world, energy would be an exclusively business matter. However, it acquired such a big role in today’s economy that achieving this ideal seems like a utopia. Energy supply in general and oil and gas trade in particular have always been and will always be inseparable from politics. At the same time, everything changes, and this inseparable link may evolve under the influence of outside factors or in the course of the energy complex’s development.

       20200628_Political Risks

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