“THE BARBARIANS ARE AT THE DOOR” - The Power Surge: Energy, Opportunity, and the Battle for America's Future - page 32

relationship between Europe and Russia began to visibly shit . E.ON,
a German company that is the world's largest investor-owned electric
utility and the world's biggest buyer of Russian gas, found itself locked
in a i ght over prices with Gazprom, the Russian natural gas monopoly.
h is commercial relationship is inseparable from politics. (Evidence?
Gerhard Schroeder, the German chancellor for seven years, took a post
on the board of a Gazprom-controlled pipeline company only months
at er leaving oi ce.) As the dispute dragged on, both sides stuck to
their guns. Gazprom insisted on lucrative contracts that tied the price
of gas to the high price of oil. E.ON was adamant that much more of
its gas be bought at considerably lower free-l oating prices determined
by what other buyers were willing to pay for natural gas and what other
producers, such as Qatar, were willing to sell for. In the end, on July
3, Gazprom blinked. h e new arrangement would save Europeans bil-
lions of dollars. 29 Only three years at er the New Year's showdown, the
balance of power between Europe and Russia was being rewrit en by
American natural gas.
For many shale gas enthusiasts, though, this was only the beginning.
h ere are no physical principles that prevent technology and techniques
developed in the United States from being applied around the world,
further breaking down the concentrated and politically charged gas
market. In 2011, the Department of Energy released the i rst estimates
of shale gas resources around the world. 30 h e United States wasn't even
number one; that honor went to China, with an estimated 1,300 trillion
cubic feet of “technically recoverable” shale gas, compared to about 900
trillion cubic feet in the United States (a number revised downward by
about a third the next year). Close behind were Argentina (800 tril-
lion), Mexico (700 trillion), and South Africa (500 trillion); another
seven countries spanning i ve continents came in at over 100 trillion
cubic feet each. 31 (h e United States uses about 20 trillion cubic feet
of natural gas every year.)
Some of these developments could, in principle, turn geopolitics on its
head. Poland, long under the thumb of Russia (not just because of energy
dependence), is estimated to have more than three hundred times as much
natural gas as it consumes every year. 32 Estimated Chinese resources add
up to more than four hundred times its annual consumption; if even a