Posted on 03/29/2014 2:46:30 PM PDT by Mount Athos
On Thursday ENI’s [Italian oil/gas] chief executive, Paolo Scaroni, was in Washington to meet with Obama administration officials at the State Department and National Security Council to discuss natural gas, Russia and Ukraine.
"What is relevant is that this dependency is going to go up and not down because domestic European production [including North Africa] is going down."
Scaroni takes a dim view of American LNG as a means to liberate Europe from Russian gas, in part because he says that transporting LNG from the United States to Europe is expensive, Russian gas production costs are very low and Russia could always decide to undercut American LNG prices.
Scaroni fears that European industries, such as the petrochemical industry, cannot compete with U.S. companies that have cheap natural gas at home. He predicts more European companies will move plants to the United States unless Europe starts to drill more aggressively for its own shale gas.
"I say embrace shale gas or embrace Russia. The Russian option is no longer an option, so we should pursue shale gas vigorously and then look at whether we should be shutting down nuclear plants in Germany."
ENI has political challenges elsewhere, too. It is the biggest oil company in Egypt, Scaroni says, and it has substantial operations in Venezuela, recently torn by riots and which many other oil companies have left after contract disputes with the leftist government.
"What about the political situation in Venezuela? I don’t know, and we don’t care because at the end of the day people will need oil and gas. If I could find oil in Switzerland I would be in Switzerland. But since it’s in Venezuela, what can I do?"
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I think Europe should just do without, to help save Gaia.
The USA can’t afford to wait out Obama’s term to turn around its insane anti-energy policies.
(Shutting down coal industry, slow walking oil permits, banning drilling in vast new areas, too difficult to expand nuclear power, etc...)
Of course Russia could under cut American pricing. It’s still less profit for Russia. Besides, does Mr. Scaroni think Europe is the only potential customer?
Sure, they can roll environmentalists up in newspapers, and toss 'em on the hearth.
What did Europe do before there was Russian gas available to them?
Obama will talk them into windmills and solar panels. HAHA
Bingo. Maintaining a war machine costs big money.
Coal
Gas
Oil
Nuclear
(Pick At Least One)
If you try to pick Wind and Solar, you’re really picking Gas, because for every installed MW of renewables, you have to provide a MW of Gas powered turbines to kick on and pick up the load when the weather is not cooperating, which will be most of the time.
After the shortages in the 70s, the North Sea, the North Slope, and Cantarell in Mexico were developed but all three are now substantially depleted.
Looks like they may get an opportunity to try.
Well it will be interesting to see how things go. If the Ukraine fights .....
They will muzzle special energy interests—all of them—and try very hard to do so, or they will find out what life is like in a Russian satellite nation. Same here, in the U.S.A., for those of you cognizant of the recent propane price debacle here. Was it a trial for the near future—say, in a couple of years or so?
Or we could just freeze in the dark, which is where the Greens are taking us, if we let them.
Europe is paying 3x what we are for NG. Even doubling our price means Russia takes a 33% cut. I doubt we’ll need subsidies. I am curious why the Italian CEO of ENI wanted to talk if he felt American NG wasn’t a good fit for Europe. I’m wondering if the reason was really the opposite. Maybe American gas would harm his company. There’s no reason Europe couldn’t go to NG fueled cars and kill his gasoline sales plus be able to end Russian energy extortion.
Was the man trying to make sure the LNG genie doesn’t get out of the bottle?
“I say embrace shale gas or embrace Russia.”
Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner. Give Paolo Scaroni a cigar.
The dumb-ass Europeans are more concerned about bowing and scrapping to the global warming scam than keeping their grandparents and children warm.
For example, the UK is sitting on at least a 100 year supply of natural gas in the north of England. Friggin’ Duh!!
Europeans have been dumbed down by eco-fascists and the NWO bankers to such an extent that I’m no longer certain that they can save themselves from their elemental stupidity.
Burned coal -- now considered the energy equivalent of child molestation.
Yeah, guess so.
If explained this before that Asia is paying more for LNG than Europe.
If you grow apples and a European will pay $1 for your apple and an Asian will pay $1.80, who will you sell the apple to?
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