The recent standoff over oil prices between Russia and Belarus has sent rippling effects to Europe, triggering debates on alternative energy and the reliance on fuel coming through regions trapped in precarious politics involving Russia and other former Soviet nations. The recent oil price dispute that witnessed disruption of oil supplies to Germany and Poland has sent shock waves to the European financial markets and saw an unexpected jump in the stock of an energy company of Norway that supplies fuel to Europe.
The European nations to which Russia supplies fuel were not apparently affected by the recent disruption in oil flow as they were maintaining considerable oil reserve. However, the incident has shaken the trust in Russia as an energy supplier. In the wake of this dispute, now Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic started weighing options to import more natural gas from Norway and Qatar.
The European Union has recently wished-for cutting oil imports and efforts are on to form a uniform energy bloc that would certainly restrict Russian strategic advantage in negotiating with individual nations.
The crisis in the former Soviet land appears to be resolved but high tension still taking rounds in the political folds in the region as Belarus has indicated that Belarus and Russia have different approaches towards building a Union State, a concept is being debated since 1997.
Amidst these speculations and plans to seek alternative energy supplier replacing Russia seem to be unrealistic at the moment. Russia in all probability will remain the predominant energy supplier to Europe due to its proximity and vast energy resources and especially when Middle East regions reeling under political instability. Now the only question remains before the Europe that how to deal with Russia on energy issues.
At present, Russia provides European Union 30 percent of oil and 40 percent of natural gas that it imports. The EU in its report has recently predicted that if Europe fails to shift to alternative and renewable energy, the fuel import from Russia will swell by somewhere between 50 to 70 percent by the year 2030.
