Atlantic Sentinel: Opportunity for Netherlands as Europe Seeks Gas Alternatives
Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine has prompted European countries to rethink their dependence on Russian natural gas. The Netherlands, still Europe’s second largest gas producer, could play a key role in diversifying the continent’s energy supply but much hinges on America’s willingness to export.
Former Russian satellite states in Eastern Europe are almost wholly dependent on Russian oil and gas. Germany, Europe’s largest economy, gets more than a third of the gas it consumes from Russia which also provides more than 30 percent of the gas that is imported by Italy.
About half of Russia’s gas exports to Europe flow through Ukraine where Western countries believe it is supporting separatist uprisings in an attempt to divide the country and weaken a government in Kiev it perceives as hostile. Russia earlier invaded and annexed the Crimean Peninsula which had been part of Ukraine since 1954.