Western Alliance Moves Fast On New Middle East Gas Supplies

From the moment on 24 February 2022 when Russian troops first moved into Ukraine, liquefied natural gas (LNG) became the key swing energy resource without which the Western response to Russia’s latest act of war would have been as impotent as its response to the annexation of Crimea in 2014. In the decades leading up to 2014, several of Europe’s great powers – especially its de facto leader Germany – had built their economic growth on the foundations of cheap oil and gas supplies from Russia, and they did not want those supplies to end. In order to finally make a stand against further Russian advancement into Europe after it moved into Ukraine, it was clear that the U.S. would have to arrange massive new supplies of energy that could quickly be delivered into Europe to compensate for lost supplies from Russia. LNG, unlike gas or oil delivered through pipelines, does not require years of laying pipelines and building out corollary supportive infrastructure. It also does not require extensive, time-consuming negotiations over complex contracts. Instead, it can be picked up quickly in the spot market and shipped expeditiously to wherever it is required. The way in which the U.S., and its core allies – especially the U.K., France, and Italy – dealt with that immediate crisis, and continue to provide an energy platform through which the Western Alliance can do without oil and gas from Russia and its allies, forms a key part of the new global oil market order, and is analysed in full in my new book of the same name. One of its new core elements is Egypt, with major developments seen in the past week or so.