Presentation:
Over last 20 years, the natural gas industry landscape has transformed from country and regional enclaves to an increasingly integrated and globalized environment. An unprecedented development of unconventional resources in the U.S. and Australia and significantly lower cost of liquefied natural gas (LNG) have expanded international trade and natural gas market liquidity. An additional large number of new natural gas suppliers and new demand sources has also had geopolitical consequences. In particular, this affects the position of Russia in Central and Eastern Europe, which being the dominant supplier to the region, was able to derive not only economic but also geopolitical benefits. This context is a backdrop to the controversy that surrounds the Nord Stream 2 (NS2) natural gas pipeline that is currently being build between Russia and Germany. The pipeline is strongly opposed by many countries in Central and Eastern Europe which see NS2 as a way for Russia to extend its geopolitical and geoeconomic power not only in that region but also beyond into Western Europe. This is also the view shared by the U.S., which has successfully imposed sanctions last December that stopped the pipeline construction about 100 miles away from completion. The recent poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has added an additional impetus for demands to sanction the pipeline by Germany. In contrast, Russia and many Western European countries argue that NS2 is strictly a commercial project and would contribute to energy security of the continent. What does NS2 really mean for Russia and Europe? Will the pipeline be completed? And if so what does it mean for energy security in the region? Who is right? This presentation will shed light on those and other questions by the audience related to NS2, energy security, U.S. involvement in the region and natural gas trade.
Speaker’s Bio
Dr Anna Mikulska, Ph.D. is a nonresident fellow in energy studies at the Baker Institute’s Center for Energy Studies. Her research focuses on the geopolitics of natural gas within the EU, former Soviet Bloc and Russia. Her current projects assessing potential use of natural gas as a geoeconomic tool and investigating ways to leverage U.S. LNG exports to bolster European energy security. Mikulska is a senior fellow at University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and the Foreign Policy Research Institute. She also seats is on the editorial board of the law review at Adam Mickiewicz University and on the scientific board of the Energy Policy Studies at I.L. Energy Policy Institute in Poland. Mikulska speaks Polish, English, German, Farsi and Russian. She received a law degree from Adam Mickiewicz University, a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Windsor in Canada, and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Houston.
