Regional energy governance and the Southern Gas Corridor

Public lecture at the Ludwig von Mises Institute–Europe, Brussels, 16 June 2015.

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Topic

Not long ago Russia’s President Vladimir Putin scrapped plans for South Stream, the major new natural gas pipeline to Europe that would have transported Russian gas under the Black Sea, making landfall in Bulgaria. The pipeline fell victim to opposition from the European Commission, as Brussels saw the project as entrenching Russia’s stranglehold on Europe. This decision came as a shock for Bulgaria which was already affected by EU’s decision to drop the Nabucco project and move forward with the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, which will transport Azeri gas from the Caspian Sea to Greece then Albania and further to the Western Europe. The Southern Gas Corridor suggests why the idea of regional energy governance should be introduced into the study of energy development and consumption, and how it should be rather different and not based upon “global energy governance”.