4 ms·

Transport via boat is just not going to beat direct pipe access from siberia

• saryant 9y ago
  Unless those pipelines were cut off. Energy and geopolitics are practically the same thing.
• adventured 9y ago
  No doubt. Fortunately it doesn't have to. The US doesn't need to beat Russia's lowest pipeline price, it needs to get near the European average price. Russia needs to yield a fat profit on their exports, which is one reason why Europe's gas prices are so much higher than the US domestic prices to begin with. The financing of their government and their economy in general are both heavily dependent on that. Russia isn't going to be willing to drop prices much, while the US exporters will look at every possible means to drive down their costs and pricing (they can afford a much slimmer margin than Russia can on its exports). Russia has 1/3 the natural gas market in Europe. It's unlikely they're going to grow that market position (which is why they're looking east for growth), their customers do not want to be more reliant on them. As Europe shuts down coal, it's going to be replaced by natural gas and renewables; most of that natural gas will be from sources other than Russia (meaning: Qatar, Australia, US, etc).