Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption (as opposed to household energy insecurity). Access to cheaper energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven distribution of energy supplies among countries has led to significant vulnerabilities. International energy relations have contributed to the globalization of the world leading to energy security and energy vulnerability at the same time.
Renewable resources and significant opportunities for energy efficiency and transitions exist over wide geographical areas, in contrast to other energy sources, which are concentrated in a limited number of countries. Rapid deployment of wind power and solar power and energy efficiency, and technological diversification of energy sources, would result in significant energy security. The International Institute for Sustainable Development says that, done carefully, phasing-out fossil fuel subsidies would increase energy security.
Threats The modern world relies on a vast energy supply to fuel anything from transportation to communication, to security and health delivery systems. Peak oil expert Michael Ruppert has claimed that for every kilocalorie of food produced in the industrial world, 10 kilocalories of oil and gas energy are invested in the forms of fertilizer, pesticide, packaging, transportation, and running farm equipment. Energy plays an important role in the national security of any given country as a fuel to power the economic engine. Some sectors rely on energy more heavily than others; for example, the Department of Defense relies on petroleum for approximately 77% of its energy needs. Not every sector is as critical as the others; some have greater importance to energy security.
Threats to a nation's energy security include: Political/Domestic instability of major energy-producing countries (e.g. change in leadership's environmental values, or regime change) Reliance on foreign countries for oil Foreign in-state conflict (e.g. religious civil wars) Foreign exporters' interests (e.g. Quid Pro Quo/blackmail/extortion) Foreign non-state actors targeting the supply and transportation of oil resources (e.g. theft) Manipulation of energy supplies (e.g. mega-corporation or state-backed racketeering) Competition over energy sources (e.g. biofuel (biodiesel, bioethanol) vs oil (crude, distilled fuel) vs coal vs natural gas vs nuclear vs wind vs solar vs hydro (dam, pumped)) Unreliable energy stores (e.g. long time to spin a turbine to create power, or Li-ion battery grid explosion, or pumped hydro dam becoming clogged) Attacks on supply infrastructure (e.g. hackers stopping flow pumps inside a pipeline or intentionally surging an electrical grid to over/underload it) Terrorism (e.g. napalming oil and/or fuel reserves) Accidents (e.g. shoddy weld causing debris buildup in a pipeline) Natural disasters (e.g. wind turbine collapsing from a major earthquake)
Political and economic instability caused by war or other factors, such as strike action, can also prevent the proper functioning of the energy industry in a supplier country. For example, the nationalization of oil in Venezuela has triggered strikes and protests in which Venezuela's oil production rates have yet to recover. Exporters may have political or economic incentive to limit their foreign sales or cause disruptions in the supply chain. Since Venezuela's nationalization of oil, anti-American Hugo Chávez threatened to cut off supplies to the United States more than once.
The 1973 oil embargo against the United States is an historical example in which oil supplies were cut off to the United States due to U.S. support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. This has been done to apply pressure during economic negotiations—such as during the 2007 Russia–Belarus energy dispute. Terrorist attacks targeting oil facilities, pipelines, tankers, refineries, and oil fields are so common they are referred to as "industry risks". Infrastructure for producing the resource is extremely vulnerable to sabotage. One of the worst risks to oil transportation is the exposure of the five ocean chokepoints, like the Iranian-controlled Strait of Hormuz. Anthony Cordesman, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., warns, "It may take only one asymmetric or conventional attack on a Ghawar Saudi oil field or tankers in the Strait of Hormuz to throw the market into a spiral."
New threats to energy security have emerged in the form of the increased world competition for energy resources due to the increased pace of industrialization in countries such as India and China, as well as due to the increasing consequences of climate change.
Although still a minority concern, the possibility of price rises resulting from the peaking of world oil production is also starting to attract the attention of at least the French government.
Increased competition over energy resources may also lead to the formation of security compacts to enable an equitable distribution of oil and gas between major powers. However, this may happen at the expense of less developed economies. The Group of Five, precursors to the G8, first met in 1975 to coordinate economic and energy policies in the wake of the 1973 Arab oil embargo, a rise in inflation and a global economic slowdown. Mathew Maavak, originally published in The Korea Herald on July 18, 2006
One of the first official documents discussing the topic was "Energy Security: Report to the President of the United States."Energy Security Report to the President of the United States, U.S. Department of Energy, DOE/S-0057 (March 1987) The working group of this report was headed by William Flynn Martin, Deputy Secretary of Energy. The results were reported to Ronald Reagan in 1987.
Long-term security
The impact of the 1973 oil crisis and the emergence of the OPEC cartel was a particular milestone that prompted some countries to increase their energy security. Japan, almost totally dependent on imported oil, steadily introduced the use of natural gas, nuclear power, high-speed mass transit systems, and implemented energy conservation measures.Oil Crisis, US Senator Bob Bennett, September 27, 2000 The United Kingdom began exploiting North Sea oil and gas reserves, and became a net exporter of energy into the 2000s.
Increasing energy security is also one of the reasons behind a block on the development of natural gas imports in Sweden. Greater investment in native renewable energy technologies and energy conservation is envisaged instead. India is carrying out a major hunt for domestic oil to decrease its dependency on OPEC, while Iceland is well advanced in its plans to become energy independent by 2050 through deploying 100% renewable energy.
Short-term security Resilience
Some observers contend that idea of "energy independence" is an unrealistic and opaque concept. The alternative offer of "energy resilience" is a goal aligned with economic, security, and energy realities. The notion of resilience in energy was detailed in the 1982 book Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security.Brittle Power: Energy Plan for National Security . Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins (1982). The authors argued that simply switching to domestic energy would not be secure inherently because the true weakness is the often interdependent and vulnerable energy infrastructure of a country. Key aspects such as gas lines and the electrical power grid are often centralized and easily susceptible to disruption. They conclude that a "resilient energy supply" is necessary for both national security and the environment. They recommend a focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy that is decentralized."The Fragility of Domestic Energy." Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins. Atlantic Monthly. November 1983. Building key infrastructure underground or party buried or in reinforced shelters can be more resilient and cheaper than retrofitting.
In 2008, former Intel Corporation Chairman and CEO Andrew Grove looked to energy resilience, arguing that complete independence is unfeasible given the global market for energy."Our Electric Future." Andrew Grove. The American. July/August 2008. He describes energy resilience as the ability to adjust to interruptions in the supply of energy. To that end, he suggests the U.S. make greater use of electricity. Electricity can be produced from a variety of sources. A diverse energy supply will be less affected by the disruption in supply of any one source. He reasons that another feature of electrification is that electricity is "sticky" – meaning the electricity produced in the U.S. is to stay there because it cannot be transported overseas. According to Grove, a key aspect of advancing electrification and energy resilience will be converting the U.S. automotive fleet from gasoline-powered to electric-powered. This, in turn, will require the modernization and expansion of the electrical power grid. As organizations such as The Reform Institute have pointed out, advancements associated with the developing smart grid would facilitate the ability of the grid to absorb vehicles en masse connecting to it to charge their batteries.Resilience in Energy: Building Infrastructure Today for Tomorrow's Automotive Fuel. Reform Institute. March 2009.
Petroleum
Petroleum, otherwise known as "crude oil", has become the resource most used by countries all around the world, including Russia, China and the United States of America. With all the oil wells located around the world, energy security has become a main issue to ensure the safety of the petroleum that is being harvested. In the middle east, oil fields have become main targets for sabotage due to how heavily countries rely on oil. Many countries hold strategic petroleum reserves as a buffer against the economic and political impacts of an energy crisis. For example, all 31 members of the International Energy Agency hold a minimum of 90 days of their oil imports. These countries also committed to passing legislation to develop an emergency response plan in the case of oil supply shocks and other short-term threats to energy security.
The value of such reserves was demonstrated by the relative lack of disruption caused by the 2007 Russia-Belarus energy dispute, when Russia indirectly cut exports to several countries in the European Union.
Due to the theories in peak oil and need to curb demand, the United States military and Department of Defense had made significant cuts, and have been making a number of attempts to come up with more efficient ways to use oil.
Natural gas
Compared to petroleum, reliance on imported natural gas creates significant short-term vulnerabilities. The gas conflicts between Ukraine and Russia of 2006 and 2009 serve as vivid examples of this.Orttung, Robert & Overland, Indra. (2011). A limited toolbox: Explaining the constraints on Russia's foreign energy policy. Journal of Eurasian Studies. 2. 74–85. Many European countries saw an immediate drop in supply when Russian gas supplies were halted during the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute in 2006.
Natural gas has been a viable source of energy in the world. Consisting of mostly methane, natural gas is produced using two methods: biogenic and thermogenic. Biogenic gas comes from methanogenic organisms located in marshes and landfills, whereas thermogenic gas comes from the anaerobic decay of organic matter deep under the Earth's surface. Russia is one of the three current leading country in production of natural gas alongside US and Saudi Arabia.