[War & Business] The Natural Gas War

A pipeline technician from Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas company, is inspecting the condition of the gas pipeline in the border area adjacent to Ukraine. [Image source=Gazprom website]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] Natural gas, currently facing a global supply shortage centered in Europe, is said to have been first used in ancient China. It is reported that in the southern region of Sichuan Province, China, where natural gas fields have recently been discovered and are being developed, gas was used for fire thousands of years ago.

Later, in the early 3rd century AD, Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of Shu Han appearing in the Three Kingdoms, connected iron pipes to gas fields that erupted on the surface of Sichuan Province and used the gas as fuel for smelting salt and iron. At that time, it was called ‘Hwajeong (火井)’, which is said to be the first gas pipeline recorded in history.

While natural gas was used in some regions since ancient times, it began to be used globally as a fuel after World War II. With technological advancements, ‘Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)’ and ‘Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)’ emerged, enabling large-scale gas transportation by ship, and natural gas began to be widely used not only for heating and vehicle fuel but also for power generation.

Among these, Russia, where massive natural gas is produced in Siberia, has been called a source of national wealth since the Soviet era. Russia’s ‘Pipeline Natural Gas (PNG)’, delivered without compression through pipelines extending from Siberia to all over Europe, is much cheaper than LNG or CNG, so many European countries had a particularly high dependence on gas for heating and power generation.

However, as Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas increased, Russia’s security threat also gradually intensified. As the Russian government frequently used natural gas as a diplomatic weapon to pressure European countries, natural gas began to be recognized not just as a cheap and low-pollution energy source but as a national strategic resource.

Since the gas price dispute with Ukraine in 2006, Russia has persistently used gas as a diplomatic weapon. In Europe, this has become so common that it is referred to as the ‘valve shutting’ strategy. In January 2009, during a cold wave, Russia shut off all gas valves heading to Europe, causing thousands of deaths by freezing in Eastern Europe alone.

The move by Western European countries such as France and the United Kingdom to abandon their existing nuclear phase-out policies and shift toward expanding nuclear power is largely influenced by Russia’s weaponization of gas. This year, Russia threatened to cut gas supplies to deter Moldova’s move to join the European Union (EU), raising voices calling for a reduction in natural gas dependence.

In particular, South Korea, which imports all its energy from abroad, cannot regard this as someone else’s problem. The resolution of energy supply issues, directly linked to people’s livelihoods and national security, is more urgently required than ever, but our resource diplomacy still remains at a beginner level.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.