Today or not today: Deregulating the Russian gas sector
Abstract Although Russia is the world's biggest producer of natural gas, its ability to maintain timely and reliable supply to meet the growing global demand has come under question in recent months. The gas war with Ukraine notwithstanding, concern has been raised by a number of observers that underinvestment in the gas sector will lead to a systemic failure of the state monopolist OAO Gazprom to increase or even maintain current levels of production. Yet with a quarter of European gas coming from Russia, and with increasing presence of Gazprom in European downstream operations (such as Germany, Hungary, and other CIS states) as well as seemingly closer ties with Algeria, another major supplier of gas to Europe, there has been a strong reaction from Europe's policy-makers to decrease dependence on Russian gas. Deregulating and liberalising the gas sector would see the lifting of restrictions to foreign or independent investors wishing to gain access to Russian reserves, as well as the unhindered access to the pipeline infrastructure and export markets. It would also signal the unbundling of Gazprom and an end to the artificially low price of gas to the domestic consumer. This paper discusses whether deregulation is the optimal way to raise capital, attract investment and increase supply security for Russia's Western neighbours. In doing so, the paper identifies the objectives of the EU as the importer whilst trying to align them with the objectives of the Russian Federation as the exporter, in the current political context.
Gasification a Driver to Stranded Resource Development
When evaluating natural gas projects, stakeholders and decision-makers have been traditionally limited by the requirement for large reserves to be recoverable before any investment can be committed. Technological advancement and commercial know-how has unlocked many potential reserves that would technically be considered stranded or entirely overlooked by IOCs (International Oil Companies) and NOCs (National Oil Companies). This has important implications for policymakers as it can affect the way natural gas is utilised as an indigenous supply, an export resource or substitution fuel.
The Limits of Vulnerability in Explaining Fear of Crime: A Comparative Neighborhood Analysis
Recent research on the fear of crime in the United States has focused on the sources of fear. Many of these studies have identified neighborhood-level variables that are related to fear, but most have examined the differences in fear among individual residents of one or more cities. There has been substantially less research on the differences in the sources of fear among residents of different areas within a single city. This article examines the causes of fear through a comparative analysis of three different neighborhoods in San Francisco. An analysis of covariance model is used to assess the importance of differences in the sources of fear that may be associated with an individual's neighborhood of residence. The findings demonstrate that age, as a measure of physical vulnerability previously associated with fear among individuals, is not related to fear in neighborhoods where residents express the greatest general concern about crime. It is concluded that in those urban areas where crime problems are regular features of the neighborhood environment, measures of physical vulnerability are less important in predicting differences in fear among individuals.