Energia

At the end of 2016, British Petroleum announced to have signed a 1 billion dollars deal with an independent oil company, Kosmos Energy, “to acquire a 62% working interest, including operatorship, of Kosmos’ exploration blocks in Mauritania and a 32.49% effective working interest in Kosmos’ Senegal exploration blocks” [1].

Hardly a day goes by without news or updates from the smart grid world over newspapers, media, or the internet. They tell us that the world is going to change completely and the business models of the past are doomed: the future is all about storage systems, smart metering, demand side management, electric vehicles, residential PV – all of them interconnected, of course.

Figure 1. Access to electricity and non-solid fuels in Africa (Source: AEEP Status Report Update 2016)

In a moment of geopolitical uncertainties, fluid changes on an international level, and increase fo-cus on terroristic threats, this article wants to discuss the possible risks for energy infrastructure and examine how grave they are. Speaking with representative of the industry, think tanks, and academia, we try to shed special light on the infrastructures in Turkey and in the nearby region.

In the last few months, lots of discussions have revolved around the economics and politics of the proposed Nord Stream II project. Nord Stream is a gas pipeline bringing Russian natural gas directly to Germany through the Baltic Sea, allowing Moscow to bypass European transit countries such as Poland, Belarus, and crisis-hit Ukraine. Nord Stream II would double the pipeline’s current capacity, from 55 to 110 billion cubic metres per year (bcm/y).

What did you miss this week? Well, let us tell you! (for previous weekly issues, click here)

Here we go with our selection of this week’s best energy articles!

April 10 – April 16

Oil and Gas

Algeria is one of the most important African producers and exporters of oil and natural gas. Discovered during the final part of the colonial era (1956), hydrocarbon resources were soon exploited by French energy companies (1958) and subsequently by the Algerian national oil company Sonatrach (1963), providing the necessary economic resources fora development strategy based on import substitution.

Last month, ISPI Energy Watch analysed opposite interests around Nord Stream 2 and the reasons why Nord Stream 2 could face hurdles. European laws were defined as the “main weapons” of those countries opposing the project.

Internet can be a marvellous place, but sometimes too much stuff is written on too many websites, making it hard to keep up with the constant stream of news. Sometimes, it can get even harder to tell apart those pieces of information that are really relevant from those that, well, are not. This is why this Monday we are kicking off our weekly reading list of articles published all over the net in the last seven days.