Creative Commons

This dissertation w as written as part of the MSc in Energy Law, Business, Regulation & Policy at the International Hellenic University. In the early 1980s when America was under Reagan administration there were some American efforts in order to convince the most influential countries in Europe through which a p roposed Soviet gas pipeline was planed to be built to set impedements to firms responsible for construction the ability to purchase supplies and parts for the pipeline and associated facilities. Despite this fear and several protests t he pipeline was bu ilt . Then that induced the rise of large Russian gas firms such as Gazprom , in addition to an increased fossil fuel production in Russia. The both have facilitated a large expansion in the quantity of gas supplied to the European market since the 1990s. No wadays, the Russian Federation is largest exporter of oil and natural gas to the European Union as supplies a significant volume of fossil fuels. In 2007, the European Union imported from Russia 185 million tonnes of crude oil, which accounted for 32.6% o f total oil import, and 100.7 million tonnes of oil equivalent of natural gas, which accounted 38.7% of total gas impor t. One of the biggest Russian state - owned companies, Gazprom exports from north to south natural gas to Europe. Furthermore, Gazprom also controls a large number of subsidiaries, including various infrastructure s as well as assets. According to the study published by the Research Centre for East European Studies, the liberalization of the EU gas market has driven to expansion of Gazpro m across Europe by increasing its share in the European downstream market. In addition Gazprom in order to ent r ench its position has established sale subsidiaries in many of its expor t markets, and has also made investments in access providers to industr ial and power generation sectors especially in Western and Central Europe. Furthermore , Gazprom has established joint ventures to construct natural gas pipelines and build storage depots in a number of European countries. Transneft, a n other Russian state - owned company responsible for the national oil pipelines, also supplies Russian energy to Europe As of 2009, Russian natural gas was delivered to Europe through 12 pipelines, of which three were direct pipelines (to Finland, Estonia and Latvia), four thr ough Belarus (to Lithuania and Poland) and five through Ukraine (to Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Poland). In 2011, an additional pipeline, Nord Stream (directly to Germany through the Baltic Sea), made its debout . What is more , Russia as an energy treasu ry is the only country on the earth that’s plans to use floating nuclear power plants. The Akademik Lomonosov, expec ted to go into operation by 2019 , will be one of eight plants that will provide power to Russian cities located across the coastline . There are also plans for the future for these plants to provide power to large gas rigs in the Arctic Ocean in order to enhance its presence over this disputable by other nations region . The Prirazlomnoye field, an offshore oilfield in the Pechora Sea , the fir st commercial offshore oil development in the Arctic that include s up to 40 wells, went into operation in 2013 with little delay has the world's fir st ice - resistant oil platform and is the first offshore Arctic platform. Russia currently great engagement with the wells in Arctic have to do with the fact that Russia wants to establish its Arctic possessions a s a major resource base by 2020 so as to be much secure in supply and also to assert clearly its claims over this region. As climate change force the ice melt down , more and more arctic surface can be explored. Besides,the temperature increase in conjuction with ice shrinking makes the Arctic areas more accessible, Russia, along with other countries, is looking to use the Arctic to increase its energy resource production. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, there are 90 billion barrels (1.4×1010 m3) of oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet (4.7×1013 m3) of natural gas north of the Arctic Circle. Overall, about 10% of the world's petroleum resources are estimated to be in the Arctic.