Soviet Energy Supplies as a Factor in East-West Relations

The USSR has been able to secure a growing share of the Western European energy market during the past decade. This applies particularly to natural gas supplies to some Western European countries; but lately it has been true of oil consumption as well (see Tables 8.1 and 8.2). The USSR probably owes the increases in its shares to the following factors: (a)Soviet energy prices are usually lower than the average prices of other suppliers. If more favourable alternatives had been avail-able (such as Norwegian natural gas), companies certainly would not have signed contracts with the USSR.(b)Drawing on USSR energy is also considered a way to increase security by diversifying the sources of supply. The fact that the USSR has always fulfilled its contracts faithfully lends weight to this point of view; the same cannot be said of energy suppliers from other regions (OPEC oil embargo, USA and Canadian uranium embargo).(c)Natural gas does not significantly emit harmful substances; expanding it as an energy source thus serves the goal of an ecologically sound energy supply.