Peak oil and the relation between russia and eu

PEAK OIL AND THE RELATION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND EU

The fossil fuels have been the principal source of the industrial energy society, including the most used fuel in the second half of the XX century, “oil”. Due to the high energetic concentration per unit volume and all the versatility that can be used, our society depends very much of this limited energy source. Although if it produces anefficient energy in technological and economic conditions, oil is still running below the surface and there are limits to drill for oil which are starting to appear and are becoming more and more visible.

The exploitation of one resource begin from none existent and then increase, at the beginning slowly but then more rapidly, from the moment when it starts to decrease, the markets are restrictedand there is insufficient supply for the actual needs of the countries that depend of this resource. With the decrease of oil nowadays, the countries have to handle the problem because it is gradually decreasing until there is no more, considering that we already had been at the “peak oil”.

The European Union (EU) is a huge consumer of energy. Nevertheless Europe has to import a largequantity of the gas it consumes, and for this reason the EU is vulnerable in the supply-cut that could happen and especially in the time when the demand is high.

The EU currently imports 82% of its oil and 57% of its gas, making it the world's leading importer of these fuels. Russia is the world biggest producer of gas and actually supplies around 30% of the total necessities of EU (Associated Press2007:1)

There are two classifications in resources, the renewable and non-renewable (Craig et al., 2001). A natural resource is a renewable resource if it is replaced by natural processes at a rate comparable or faster than its rate of consumption by humans. Solar radiation, tides, winds and hydroelectricity are perpetual resources that are in no danger of a lack of long-term availability.The term “resources” refers only to the non-renewable resources occurring in finite quantities that natural processes cannot argue or replenish in short time. Examples are fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) and metallic ores. Resources are of varying densities and qualities (Verbruggen et al., 2009:38).

Resources: Discovered quantities that are potentially recoverable but cannot berecovered at current prices with current technology (contingent resources), as well as the undiscovered but potentially recoverable quantities having both an associated change of discovery and a change of economist development. Conventional oil is a liquid lighter than water. A higher extraction rate of the conventional oil in place requires enhanced oil recovery techniques (e.g. water flooding, steaminjection and CO2 pressurizing) higher production cost (Verbruggen et al., 2009:38). Enhanced oil recovery using carbon dioxide (CO2-EOR) is a method that can increase oil production beyond what are typically achievable using conventional recovery methods while facilitating the storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the oil reservoir.

Non conventional oil is extracted by using techniques other thanthe conventional method. The production is less efficient and has more environmental impacts than conventional oil production. Non conventional oil is encompassing extra heavy oil, oil sands, oil shale, gas to liquids and coal to liquids. The carbon intensities of non-conventional resources are high (Brandt and Farrel, 2007:241-263).

Resources are not homogenously distributed in the Earth´scrust (Verbruggen et al., 2009:39). Non renewable resources consist of geochemical concentrations of naturally occurring elements and compounds that can or may be exploited at a profit. At the present the concentrations that are exploitable at a profit range from slightly more than twice to several thousand times the average crustal abundance of the desired element.

With depletion of high grade...