Modeling the Geopolitics of Natural Gas: LNG Exports From the US to Eastern Europe

FCN Working Paper No. 15/2015

33 Pages Posted: 6 Jan 2019

See all articles by Fabian Stähr

Fabian Stähr

RWTH Aachen University

Reinhard Madlener

RWTH Aachen University; Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) - Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management

Christoph Hilgers

Institute of Reservoir-Petrology

Franziska Holz

German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin); Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) - Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management

Date Written: November 1, 2015

Abstract

In the course of the crisis in the Ukraine, most leading politicians in Eastern European countries, such as Poland, the Baltic States and Ukraine itself, identified the high dependency on natural gas imports from Russia as a threat to energy security. Hopes of independence through extraction of domestic shale gas resources, which evolved after the US shale gas revolution and the substantial resource estimations for Polish shale gas (published by the EIA in 2011 and updated 2013), are more topical than ever. However, there are several factors, which dim the hope for repetition of the US “shale gas revolution” in Eastern Europe. First, international companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil or Chevron withdrew from Poland and Ukraine due to poor exploration results. Additionally, because of environmental legislation and population density, the obstacles for commercial shale gas production within Europe, compared to the US, are very high. In this paper, the Global Gas Model (GGM) (Egging, 2013) is used to simulate future patterns of the Eastern European gas supply. Shale gas scenarios show that Poland and the Baltic States would lower their dependency with an annual production of 8 bcm (Poland) and 2 bcm (Baltic States) because of their relatively low natural gas consumption. This means, conversely, that a failing production of shale gas would lead to ongoing dependence on natural gas imports. In Ukraine, however, a potential shale gas production of 5 bcm/a does not have major consequences with respect to an annual consumption of up to 60 bcm. As for LNG scenarios, US LNG exports do barely reach the Eastern European gas market in the Base Case scenario. Only in the projected period between 2035 and 2040 Poland receives 4.9 bcm of US LNG. However, the Polish natural gas market is sensitive to provided subsidies. A 30% subsidy on transportation increases the total amount of exported LNG to Poland up to 8 bcm. In contrast, the Ukrainian and Baltic natural gas market, however, barely react to subsidies from the US. A minimum of 60% is needed to export US natural gas under economically rational conditions to both regions. Modeling results show that the increasing natural gas demand in Ukraine, the Baltic States and Poland is in need of either domestic shale gas production or an increase of pipeline or LNG imports.

Keywords: Liquefied Natural Gas, Shale Gas, Central and Eastern Europe, Subsidies

JEL Classification: C61, F14, F17, Q31, Q34, Q41, Q48

Suggested Citation

Stähr, Fabian and Madlener, Reinhard and Hilgers, Christoph and Holz, Franziska, Modeling the Geopolitics of Natural Gas: LNG Exports From the US to Eastern Europe (November 1, 2015). FCN Working Paper No. 15/2015, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3305149 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3305149

Fabian Stähr

RWTH Aachen University ( email )

Templergraben 55
52056 Aachen, 52056
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.rwth-aachen.de

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) - Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management ( email )

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.ntnu.edu/employees/reinhard.madlener

Christoph Hilgers

Institute of Reservoir-Petrology ( email )

Templergraben 55
52056 Aachen, 52056
Germany

Franziska Holz

German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) ( email )

Mohrenstraße 58
Berlin, 10117
Germany

Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) - Department of Industrial Economics and Technology Management ( email )

Norway

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