ABSTRACT
The realignment of power that has gone hand in hand with globalization in recent years is partly attributable to shifts in the global energy system. Indeed, the most significant shift of economic power, namely that from the West to Asia, has been driven by well-functioning and stable energy markets. Access to affordable energy from abroad has become a critical factor for the peaceful rise of developing countries like China, which until recently have been energy selfsufficient. Consumers in those rising economies are now joining their Western counterparts in their demand for energy, causing a significant shift in the demand-dynamics of global energy markets.1 At the same time, the power to define the rules of the energy markets has shifted from the consumers and from the international oil companies (IOCs) to the producers and their national oil companies (NOCs).2 Russia, for one, has clearly benefited from the recent transformation of the global energy system, and its accumulation of energy wealth thanks to high oil prices in the past years has in part enabled Russia to revive its position as a Eurasian power to be reckoned with.
