Overview of oil and gas industry in Western Europe

From the previous analysis of the world's geopolitical pattern of oil and gas already know, Western Europe belongs to the oil and gas consumption of the region, but its oil and gas resources within the region is very little, and its socio-economic development of the oil and gas resources needed to solve the problem mainly by imports. Of course, some of the countries in the Western European mainland also have some oil and gas resources, such as the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, France, Italy and so on.

One of the oil industry in Western Europe

Western Europe is a big oil-producing area in the late 1970s, Western Europe is still an oil-poor area, the oil extraction industry is limited to a number of small oil fields on land, crude oil production is insignificant. Starting in the 1960s, the countries bordering the North Sea had discovered rich offshore oil and gas shows, but exploitation was delayed for natural and economic reasons. It was only in the 1970s, and especially after 1973, that high oil prices gave great economic significance to the exploitation of North Sea oil. With the growth of crude oil production in the North Sea, Western Europe shook off its "oil-poor" label and became an emerging crude oil producing region.

Western Europe's oil recovery industry, the main production area is distributed in the North Sea waters. North Sea waters are divided into seven coastal countries, including the United Kingdom, Norway, the largest share of the area, respectively, accounting for 46% and 25% of the oil industry in the North Sea is concentrated in the waters of the two countries. The Netherlands, Denmark, the former West Germany, Belgium, France **** to obtain the remaining 29%, but the crude oil production in these waters does not have an important position.

The United Kingdom was the first oil producer to rise with the development of oil in the North Sea.In the second half of 1975, oil began to come out of the Argyll and Fordyce fields in the British North Sea waters, and since then, the British oil extraction industry has soared.Since 1980, the United Kingdom has become the only major oil-consuming countries in Western Europe to be able to feed itself and can export crude oil. By 1998, Britain's oil production was 133 million tons, and the remaining proven recoverable reserves for the same period were 708 million tons (Wang Jinzhou, 1999).

Norway is the first oil reserve country in Western Europe. in 1998, Norway's remaining proved recoverable reserves were 1.489 billion tons. The Norwegian North Sea waters of the oil recovery industry earlier than the United Kingdom, in 1971 the Ekfisk oil field for its starting point. 1975 production of 9 million tons of crude oil, becoming the first Western European oil self-sufficiency of the country. After that, crude oil production rose steadily, reaching 164 million tons in 1992, surpassing the United Kingdom as the largest oil producer in Western Europe, and in 1998, its oil production was 152 million tons, making it one of the largest oil producers in the world. in May 2003, the Norwegian ambassador to Venezuela, Dag M?rk, announced that Statoil would invest US$3-5 billion in the Deltara Gas Project in Venezuela. This is Norway's largest investment to date. This is Norway's largest foreign investment program to date, and it means that the Norwegian petroleum industry is beginning to develop in the direction of internationalization (International Petroleum Economics Editorial Board, 2003).

Western Europe in 2000, the oil reserves and extraction ratio of 7, the remaining proven reserves of oil is 2.34 billion tons, accounting for 1.67% of the world's remaining proven reserves of oil, compared with 2.538 billion tons of remaining proven reserves in 1999, a decrease of 7.7%. 2000, the remaining proven reserves of natural gas is 4.5 trillion m3, compared with the remaining proven reserves of natural gas of 4.43 billion m3 in 1999, a decrease of 4.7%. The remaining proved recoverable reserves of natural gas in 2000 were 4.5 trillion cubic meters, an increase of 1.5% over the remaining proved recoverable reserves of natural gas in 1999, accounting for 3.01% of the world's remaining proved recoverable reserves of natural gas. 321 million tons of oil were produced in Western Europe in 2000, an increase of 1.0% over the previous year's oil production, accounting for 9.58% of the world's oil production (of which the United Kingdom's production of 126,845,000 tons in 2000, a decrease of 6.9% compared with the previous year's actual production of 136,245,000 tons. million tons, a decrease of 6.9%; Norway's production in 2000 was 160,810,000 tons, an increase of 6.6% over the previous year's actual production of 150,880,000 tons). In contrast, Western Europe accounted for 22% of the world's oil consumption in 1999. Western Europe's natural gas production in 1999 was 289,237 million cubic meters, an increase of 8.5% from 266,570 million cubic meters in 1998, and accounted for 12.31% of the world's production, while its natural gas consumption in 1999 was 417,300 million cubic meters, or 17.38% of the world's natural gas consumption. The proportion of natural gas in the primary energy consumption structure of the EU-15 is nearly 24%. Compared with other regions of the world, the EU has limited natural gas reserves and low production, but has large consumption and imports and a well-developed transmission pipeline network. By the end of 2001, the EU had 3.21 trillion cubic meters of proven natural gas reserves, accounting for 2.1% of the world, mainly in the Netherlands (1.77 trillion cubic meters) and the United Kingdom (0.73 trillion cubic meters). The European Union produced 212.9 billion cubic meters of gas in 2001, accounting for 8.6% of the world, with the main producers being the United Kingdom (105.8 billion cubic meters) and the Netherlands (61.4 billion cubic meters); natural gas consumption was 343.3 billion cubic meters, accounting for 15.9% of the world, with the main consumers being the United Kingdom (95.4 billion cubic meters), Germany (82.9 billion cubic meters), Italy (64.5 billion cubic meters), France ( 40.7 billion cubic meters), the Netherlands (39.3 billion cubic meters) and Spain (18.2 billion cubic meters) (Liu Yan, 2003).

Two, Western Europe's oil and gas trade

As early as the early 1950s, Western Europe's oil imports have reached more than 40 million tons, more than the combined imports of the United States and Japan, equivalent to 30% of the world's total imports. Into the 1960s, Western Europe implemented the conversion of energy from coal to oil, oil consumption surged to 1973 oil imports accounted for 45.6% of the world's total oil imports, at that time, Western Europe is an oil-poor region, crude oil production of only about 18 million tons, for the region's huge consumer demand is just a drop in the bucket, so as to form a high degree of dependence on imports of oil consumption situation. With the Norwegian and British North Sea oil exploitation, improved the region's crude oil self-sufficiency rate. At the same time, the emphasis on adjusting the structure of energy consumption: compression of oil consumption 'to increase the proportion of natural gas, coal and nuclear energy consumption, oil imports fell significantly. However, due to the North Sea crude oil production by the size of the resource reserves limitations, Western Europe is still the world's important oil importers. The Middle East and Africa are the basic sources of Western Europe's oil imports, in addition, oil from the former Soviet Union and Latin America also accounted for a certain proportion. Italy, France and the former Federal Republic of Germany are the three largest oil importers in Western Europe.

North America and Europe is the world's pipeline natural gas consumption of the main market. In North America, the main exporter of natural gas is Canada, which mainly sells natural gas to the United States through pipelines, and the volume of pipeline natural gas trade in 2000 was 103.44 billion cubic meters; 39.2% of the European Union's natural gas consumption comes from imports, and many sources of imports, and half of the member states are completely dependent on imports (Liu Yan, 2003). The main exporters of natural gas in Europe are Russia, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom to countries such as Italy, Turkey, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Belgium. Therefore, Canada, Russia, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are the most important countries to ensure the supply of natural gas in the two major consumption areas of North America and Europe, and have a strong geopolitical advantage in the regional natural gas trade.

Russia occupies a very important position in the supply of natural gas to Central and Western Europe, and for the rest of Europe, without the supply of hydrocarbons, especially natural gas, from Russia, the energy security of Europe is facing a great threat.In 2001, the EU pipeline imports of natural gas were 154.2 billion cubic meters, of which, 75.23 billion cubic meters came from Russia (Liu Yan. 2003). However, while standing firm in the European market, Russia is ready to use its strong hydrocarbon advantage to develop the markets of Northeast Asia and China in an eastward direction, in order to prevent the disadvantage caused by the singularity of its hydrocarbon exports.

Norway's gas reserves were 1.25 trillion cubic meters in 2000, and gas production was 44.96 billion cubic meters. 1999 Norwegian gas exports to mainland Europe and Britain rose 6.8 percent from 1998 to 45.5 billion cubic meters. Gaz de France was the largest buyer of Norwegian gas, *** purchasing 11.2 billion cubic meters. Germany's Ruhrgas purchased 9.5 billion cubic meters, and the Belgian Gas Distribution Company purchased 5.6 billion cubic meters. Norwegian gas exports to the Czech *** and States increased to 1.3 billion cubic meters.In October 1999, the Norwegian pipeline network completed its expansion and renovation, and the second phase of the European pipeline, which connects the Kollsnes and Emden terminals, began operations.In 2001, 48.38 billion cubic meters of the 154.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas imported into the European Union came from Norway (Liu Yan 2003).

In 2000, Norway was the largest buyer of natural gas in the European Union, purchasing 9.5 billion cubic meters.

In 2000, the Netherlands had 1.77 trillion cubic meters of proven natural gas reserves, produced 62.8 billion cubic meters, and exported 36.62 billion cubic meters of natural gas.In 1999, pipeline natural gas exports from the Netherlands fell to 35 billion cubic meters in 1998 due to a decrease in exports to Germany, and due to the Trans-Europa-Naturgas pipeline Exports to Italy also declined due to the expansion of the Trans-Europa-Naturgas pipeline.The volume of pipeline gas exported in 2000 was 36.62 billion cubic meters.

Europe was also the second largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2000, with 32.68 billion cubic meters, second only to the Asia-Pacific region (whose imports amounted to 98.04 billion cubic meters.) In 2001, imports of LNG amounted to 28.7 billion cubic meters, of which 200.7, 55.5, 9.3, 9.3, 9.5, 9.3, 9.3 and 9.4 billion cubic meters came from Algeria, Nigeria, Qatar, Oman, Libya, and the United Arab Emirates, respectively. , 55.5, 9.3, 9.1, 7.7, 0.2 billion cubic meters, accounting for 20% of the world's total exports of 142.95 billion cubic meters (Liu Yan, 2003).

Three, Western Europe's oil and gas transportation

Xu Xiaojie based on research that the future Asia-Europe onshore oil and gas pipeline transportation network mainly from the "oil heartland" to Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia, the demand for this moon-shaped zone circulation, specifically the west, south and east of the transnational pipeline network system in three directions. Among them, the westward pipeline system has two parts, one is from Russia's Siberia to Europe. Here there is the Russian Friendship Pipeline and the newly built Yamal Pipeline. The second is Central Asia's transportation routes westward targeting the European market, including the northern and western routes. The northern route means that oil from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan goes north into Russian territory and is transported to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk using existing pipelines. The Western Route refers to Caspian Sea oil entering the Black Sea or Mediterranean Sea via Baku to Georgia or Turkey. Meanwhile, natural gas from Algeria in North Africa has been running through the Maghreb and northward to supply the southern European market, which is known as the Maghreb-Europe pipeline (Xu Xiaojie, 1998). Specifically, the main oil transportation routes connecting Western Europe are (Wang Jinzhou, 1999): the Persian Gulf-Cape of Good Hope-Western Europe and North America line. This route runs from the oil ports in the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz and the Arabian Sea, along the east coast of Africa through the Mozambique Channel around the Cape of Good Hope, and then along the west coast of Africa directly to Western Europe and North America. This route is mainly operated by supertankers, which bear 70% of the total amount of oil delivered to Western Europe and 45% of the oil delivered to the U.S. It is the main oil supply and transportation line for Western Europe and North America, and is also the world's most important maritime oil transportation line.

North America, Western Europe and the former Soviet Union region and is the most developed oil and gas pipeline transportation area (Figure 5-1, Figure 5-2 see color map in the back of the book). There, natural gas pipelines are dotted and internationally connected. There are 187,000 kilometers of gas pipelines within the EU, 2.63 times more than in 1970 when there were 71,000 kilometers. The EU's intra-EU cross-border pipeline volume of 61.39 billion cubic meters represents 15% of the world's cross-border pipeline volume of 408.32 billion cubic meters. 60% of the EU's natural gas consumption is transported across at least one country (Liu Yan, 2003). Natural gas mainline densities range from 185 m/km2 in the U.S. to 265 m/km2 in the Netherlands and 48 m/km2 in France.Western Europe's natural gas supply was initially regional but began with the discovery of the Groningen field in the Netherlands and the construction of a natural gas pipeline system in Western Europe. Eastern Europe is also actively expanding its gas pipelines. In terms of the number of participating countries, the European gas market is the most complex gas pipeline network in the world, with 200 million gas customers.

Construction of gas transmission pipelines has grown steadily in recent years as demand for natural gas has increased. Growing demand for cleaner fuels across Europe is driving the implementation of gas pipeline construction projects from the former Soviet Union region, North Africa, and overseas in the North. Among the projects currently under construction and planned for Europe are the Zeepipe II pipeline from the North Sea and Algeria, the "Europipe", the Holten pipeline, and the Europe-Maghreb pipeline, which are becoming the focus of attention.

Four, the EU gas unified market

From the above analysis, the EU member states natural gas consumption partly by the import and export between member states to solve, but a large part of the need to rely on imports from the EU external market to solve. In this case, in order to ensure the safe and stable supply of natural gas in the EU, the EU has formed a unified market for natural gas.

The development of the natural gas industry in the EU countries can be divided into four stages (Huan Guoyu, Li Xiaodong, Sun Jian, 2003), namely, the start-up period, the growth period, the molding period and the maturity period. At present, these countries have entered the maturity period of diversified gas sources, stable market demand and perfect infrastructure, which provides a solid material foundation for the formation of a unified natural gas market in the EU. The establishment of a unified natural gas market is the inevitable result of the EU's economic integration process, but also the EU countries to promote the development of their own natural gas industry, to promote the use of efficient and clean energy needs.

As early as 1990, the European Commission has begun to promote the establishment of the EU's internal gas market. in June 1990 and May 1991, the European Commission issued Directive 90/377/EEC "on procedures for improving the transparency of natural gas and electricity prices for industrial end-users" and Directive 91/296/EEC "on the transmission of natural gas through pipeline networks". In 1996, the European Parliament and the Council published a series of guidelines for the construction of trans-European energy networks in the form of Directive 1254/96/EC, which strongly contributed to the development of an integrated European natural gas infrastructure.In July 1998, the European Parliament and the Council issued Directive 98/30/EC In July 1998, the European Parliament and the Council also issued Directive 98/30/EC, which clarifies the rules of the internal gas market*** and the principles for the organization of the natural gas sector in each member state, and puts forward the obligations that the governments of the member states must assume in the fields of transmission, storage and distribution to maintain fair competition in the market in order to ensure that the internal natural gas market can be set up and operated efficiently, as well as stipulating the mandatory terms and conditions.

The main idea of the EU gas market is to promote the free flow of resources in the region, in order to build and improve the construction of a unified energy market in the region, but without prejudice to the premise of the internal market, allowing countries to have a number of exemptions, and the development of the national regulatory system. Within the EU gas unified market, the principle of fairness, the principle of transparency and the adoption of licenses as the main means of regulation should be adhered to.

From the formation of the EU gas unified market, and its leading ideas and implementation principles, the EU in the natural gas and even the management of the energy market has begun to unify the management of its countries of the oil and gas security strategy will inevitably be subject to the support and constraints of its unified rules.